Rock Star Weekend

Last Thursday my friend Jenny from Columbus emailed me and told me that a friend had bailed on her and that she had an extra ticket to see Ben Harper, Sheryl Crow and The Beastie Boys and did I want to go? Um, hello? Hell Yeah! The show was at Hara Arena and was part of the "Rock the Vote" campaign. I had never been to Hara Arena and the only thing I knew about it was that is was in the not-so-nice section of Dayton and that it was a really old building. Both proved to be true!

Jenny and I planned to meet at the Arby's near the Arena. Not that this has anything to do with the story, but Arby's had a huge sign for fried macaroni and cheese. How artery-clogging delicious does that sound? I didn't have any and recently found out that the promotion ended a couple of days ago. How sad.

Anyway...

I really wanted to bring my camera to the show and had emailed the arena earlier that day and they said absolutely no cameras were allowed so I didn't chance it. When we got to the door they were searching purses and frisking people before allowing them to go inside. I decided to go to the line with the burly dyke. She told me to spread my legs and put my arms up. She felt me up and down and then proceeded to say "I need to feel for underwire" and then she cupped my breasts. Hmmmm. What do they do if someone is wearing underwire in their bra? How is underwire dangerous? Days later, I'm still pondering these questions!

The floor in front of the stage was already full so we didn't get very close to the front. I noticed that the crowd was pretty much made up of UD students so I knew there would be vast amounts of stupidity occurring during the show.

We basically people watched while waiting for Ben Harper to start the show. There was a girl there whose hair I couldn't stop looking at. She was an attractive girl, but her hair was really matted, almost like a bad wig. It reminded me of my old drag queen friend Tabitha who could never afford a good wig. She would wear this old natty black wig and you could always see her blonde hair through the clumped hair pieces. It was bad. We actually took up a collection so Tabitha could get herself a new 'do... Jenny said that the girls hair was real but I just can't imagine why she would want her hair to look like that!

I also noticed that all of the older people (yeah, my age!) were sitting in the stadium seats. This was probably a wise choice being that I decided later after escaping a near-death experience while standing next to the mosh pit that I am old... just like them - the old fogies sitting down with their beer and pizza waiting for the show to start. But, there I was on the floor and really, that was fine with me. I kind of like being where the action is. Now, if everyone would just behave.

I knew of Ben Harper but wasn't quite sure what he sang. I kept waiting for him to sing something I was familiar with but that never happened. He opened with Queen's "Under Pressure" and I knew that one, but I also knew that it wasn't his song. I kept asking Jenny if he has sang anything I should know and she kept saying no. I learned later that the song I would have known, had he sung it, was "Steal My Kisses". I would have definitely known that one!

The next act was Sheryl Crow. Okay, first of all, she looks amazing! This woman really has not aged - especially with everything she has been through! She put on a great set and I was really glad that she chose not to play "All I Wanna Do" because it would have annoyed me. I can't help it. I just get annoyed when the crowd gets stupid when a musician plays their "hit" and that's the only song they know. I know it's dumb and petty, but it annoys me - especially at a Blues Traveler show.

In between songs during Sheryl Crow's set The Beastie Boys came out on stage. They sang 'Happy Birthday' to Ad-Rock and gave him a cake. They also did something with a trophy but I'm not quite sure what that was all about. Needless to say, the crowd went nuts when The Beastie Boys came out. I didn't have my glasses on so it took me a couple of minutes to realize that Ben Stiller was with them. Jenny and I just looked at each other like "Whoa! That's Ben Stiller!" Very cool.

It seemed like forever waiting for The Beastie Boys to come out. I was more than ready! The crowd had definitely grown larger and I knew mayhem was about to happen. Just before The Beastie Boys took the stage I noticed someone was smoking a clove cigarette. I immediately had flashbacks to 1987 at Northwoods Mall in North Charleston. It was back in the day when I smoked cloves and then one day, at the mall, I became violently ill and had to run outside to throw up. I threw up blood and really, that was the last clove I ever smoked. The smell of cloves alone is enough to make me want to hurl so I politely asked the kid (and I do mean kid!) to stop smoking it. I think I shocked him by asking him to put it out because he just said "alright" and them BAM! The Beastie Boys were onstage. I think the kid moved away from us because I didn't smell it again. All I could smell after that was pot... and a lot of it!

The Beastie Boys rocked! They pretty much look the same with the exception of MCA's grey hair and Mike D's "Arnold Horshack" hairdo. Ad-Rock looked exactly the same... and really, he's just exceptionally hot. I've always loved watching him perform. The best part of the show was when they started doing "the weave" and Ad-Rock ran off the stage and Ben Stiller, dressed as Ad-Rock, ran on the stage and started singing/rapping. He kicked ass.


Sadly, this is the kind of show that it's nearly impossible to meet the bands afterward. If they frisk you for a camera I can't imagine how they would be around the acts post-show. I didn't even bother with it... and you know I can't stand leaving a show without meeting people! I also had to work the next morning so that was an incentive to head home. Oh well!

Jenny and I said our goodbye's and also said "see you tomorrow" because my Future-Baby's-Daddy was in town! Blues Traveler!! I was so excited for that show I could hardly stand it! It seems like forever since I had seen them so I was having serious withdrawls! We planned to meet at the door at 7pm so after work I booked it home, changed clothes and headed out again. I was exhausted from the night before and working all day but it didn't matter!

I arrived at Bogart's a bit before 7 and called Jenny. She said they were on their way so I headed to the front door and waited. I was the only person for a while and then was joined by some guy named Shawn who chatted me up about Irish music. He also gave me a history of the Cincinnati bar Molly Malone's. I have no idea why all the chat about Celtic Fests and such... he just started talking about it and I was trapped. He was nice, but I finally told him that I don't know anything about Irish music. He said that was okay and kept giving me the oral history of every person involved with the Irish music scene in Cincinnati. Hmmm. FINALLY Jenny, Holly and their friend Amber arrived and I was saved!

When the doors finally opened we made our way to the front of the stage and stayed planted. If one of us needed to to leave the stage we would strategically spread out so that no one could penetrate the front row! We are serious. We are BT professionals! Don't mess with us!

The opening band was from Cincinnati. Grooveshire, or something like that. I didn't really care for them and their last song was about Matt Maupin, which was touching, but kind of a downer. After what seemed like forever, we knew BT was finally going to start... this is indicated by the steaming beverage for John Popper. When they bring out the steaming cup, as Jenny and I discussed, you know it won't be long!

All the of the BT crew were in costumes, being that it was Halloween, and I figured the band would probably dress up as well. Apparently it was a Star Wars theme. JP was Darth Vader... that's the only costume name I know since I'm not a fan. I think Chan was supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I'm not sure.



As always, the show was awesome. I caught another harmonica. I like to think that John aimed it directly toward me since he admitted he did that the last time I caught one. We met Tad and Brendan after the show but by the time we went outside to see if we could catch John he was already on the bus. Tragic. I really wanted to ask him about his knives, the secret compartments in his car for the knives and why they never play my favorite songs! Perhaps next time.

After waiting in the parking lot we all said our goodbye's and headed home. I decided that Vine Street in Cincinnati on Halloween is not exactly the safest area in town.

Saturday was uneventful. I slept alllllll day and it was lovely. I hadn't done that in a very long time. Justin finally had to wake me since he thought I might need to find some nourishment during my slumber marathon.

Sunday I had to work at IKEA. My part-time job that I am VERY MUCH over. It sucks. Most of the co-workers are lazy, the management doesn't give a shit about anything and the customer service is horrendous. I loathe going in there.

When my shift started I talked to the manager on duty about the possibility of getting off early so Justin and I could go to the Obama rally at the University of Cincinnati. I had been waiting for Obama to come back through Ohio since we are a key state. I received an email from the campaign saying he was going to be in town and I really wanted to go. The manager on duty said that she couldn't make any promises but would keep me in mind. Whatever! There was definitley opportunity to send me home early, but didn't I should have just done what everyone else does and call in sick. When it was time for me to go I busted my ass and got out as soon as I could. We knew parking would be a mess and that there would be masses of people to navigate through.

We made it to the rally around 8:30 and actually didn't have a problem parking. We walked to the stadium and "merged" into the line that had already formed. We couldn't see the end of the line so that is why we cut, I mean "merged"... you get the picture!

We were in the stadium seats and I really wanted to be on the ground. Apparently you had to have some golden ticket or something to have ground access. From where we were you couldn't see facial features adn really, the sound quality was awful. There was a horrible echo and you had to strain to make anything out. Regardless, I was thrilled to be there and really hope that tomorrow there really will be a "change"!!


During the rally they handed out signs to people and Justin said he wanted one. He managed to grab one when they were being handed out. After a couple of minutes of him holding it I happened to look down and the sign said "African Americans for Barack Obama" and I started cracking up!! I told him to look at the sign and we just laughed. I said he should trade with the people next to us. We told the girl that we aren't African American so it really doesn't apply to us... she finally agreed to trade. I thought maybe there was something Justin wasn't telling me!! I really wish I would have thought to take a picture of Justin holding the sign.

Speaking of signs... there was this crazy lady there that is apparently my new BFF. She had her own sign:


We told her that we liked her sign and then spent the next hour talking to her about politics and how she thinks Hillary Clinton is attractive depsite her wrinkles. When I took her picture she asked if I would send her a copy. I said of course since I have done this for other people when they don't have a camera handy. She then proceeded to write down her name and address. I asked for her email and she said "Oh, I don't have a computer!" Um, now I have to actually print a photo and send it to her. Alrighty, then!

We borrowed her sign for a photo op:


We left the rally and headed back for the car, on the way buying a couple of Obama '08 buttons. When we finally reached the car it was about an hour wait until we were finally able to leave the garage. Traffic was really backed up, which sucked since I was really tired. We came home, relaxed for a bit and crashed.

Awesome concerts, hanging out with fabulous and hot friends and seeing our future president... It was most definitely a wonderfully full weekend!

The Catholic Ladybug

Since our former dog, Pasha, decided he loved to eat shoes and I never managed to keep them from his reach I had to go to the shoe store to purchase a pair of heels for the wedding of Justin's best friend, Andy, which was today. I went to Shoebilee and found an awesome pair right away and they were only $9! I love Shoebilee!

Since Justin was Best Man in the wedding he had to arrive at the church early so I stayed home to get ready. After getting dressed I drove solo to the church and was one of the first to arrive. While waiting for the ceremony to start I sat in the pew and looked down at my cute new shoes to admire them and I actually said "fuck!" in the church. No one heard me, except for maybe Jesus.

Damn! I had just realized that my super-cute new shoes were navy blue and not black!! I can't believe that I didn't realize this at the store!

They really are very dark so they almost look black! At first I wanted to run home and change them before someone noticed but instead I got up and went to the bathroom to inspect them closer. My shirt was plum and I was wearing black pants so I decided that the navy blue shoes actually went with my outfit so no need for panic or run back home for a change. I wish I could find them in black since 99.9% percent of my wardrobe is black!

The wedding was interesting. It was Catholic, except most of the guests were not. Half the time no one knew whether to sit or stand. There were a couple of times I actually laughed at the confusion. At first I sat alone in the pew but them noticed that I had been joined by a ladybug which captured my attention for most of the ceremony. The fact that the ladybug was entertaining was not surprising. For the most part, I couldn't understand a thing the Priest was saying. He mumbled through the whole service and spoke very low. I just made sure I paid enough attention to stand when others stood.

The hardest part of the whole thing was the fact that my own wedding was supposed to be last month. I pretty much avoid the subject for the most part because it's just way to painful but many people have asked so here's the deal; In a nutshell, Justin and I have decided to postpone the wedding to work some stuff out. I can't speak for Justin, but I don't take marriage lightly and I only want to get married once. We are still engaged, we still live together, we still love each other but we just want to get it right.

Okay, enough of that.

During the wedding there was a minute that I got very choked up. I was really hoping this wouldn't happen!! Regardless of my situation or who is getting married, the part that ALWAYS gets me is when the bride steps into the the entry of the church... the moment the bride and groom see one another for the first time. I looked at Dawn as she entered the church and she was beautiful, then I looked at Andy to check his reaction. I was really hoping that both of them were taking that moment in so they could remember it forever. To me, it is the most pure moment of the whole ceremony.

I looked from Andy to Justin, who was standing next to him and from there I had to look away because I could feel the tears well up. I looked down at my ring, said a prayer, looked at my shoes and for my friend the ladybug... the first sign of good luck I've seen in a long time.

...off to the reception!

Unintentional Philly

Our trip to London started off well enough... we left a bit early so we would be sure to make it to the airport on time. We wanted to have enough time to check in and I also had to exchange my American dollars for British Pounds. We made it through check in and security fine (with the exception of a billion questions the computer asked me about my passport!) and then I headed off to Travelex. The currency exchange went well and I quickly headed back to the terminal where Justin was waiting.

I was so hot from my jog throughout the airport that I stopped in the gift shop to buy a hair elastic and a bottle of water. While watiing in line to pay for my purchases I hear my name being paged over the airport loudspeaker. Of course they also mispronounced my name... they were telling me to report back to the Travelex counter. I put down my purchases and started the 10-minute jog across the airport. By the time I reached the counter they had paged me 5 or 6 times!! Turns out that the Travelex person shorted me 100 British Pounds! I was pretty ticked, but at least she caught it and was honest about it!! I started my journey back to the terminal. This was the third time I had to go through security... not fun!

By the time I got to Justin I was exhausted! The Travelex counter was not close! We waited for a bit for Beth and Brad to show up and boarded the plane on final call. After sitting in the airplane for a while we were told that due to bad weather there are no planes taking off or landing at the Philadelphia airport, which is where our layover was. Before taking off we spent 2 1/2 hours on the tarmac sitting on the plane. We were all miserable and people were not happy. The plane was hot and cramped and the seats were leather so my ass was on fire! We finally took off and made it to Philadephia three hours late! Our connecting flight to London, which we should have had a 2 hour 45 minute layover for, had just left without us! We were assured that when we departed a gate agent would be there to assist us with any connection issues... that wasn't the case as we had to hunt an agent down!

We went to the US Air counter and waited in line for a while. When we finally got to the head of the line all the agents went home... there was a women in a uniform that we went to for help. She said that they had to "furlough" all their staff and everyone goes home at 11pm so we needed to go to a gate and speak to one of the reps there and they would help us. I wasn't sure why she couldn't help us, but we did what she said and went to the gate agent she suggested. Long story short, the soonest flight they could put us on was in 24 hours and they would not pay for a hotel for us since the delay was weather related. There is so much more to this, but it would take days to type! We were given a hotel voucher for a discounted rate and were told to go to the shuttle area. When the shuttle came the driver told us that there were no rooms and he wasn't sure why they gave us a voucher. We trekked across the airport and back to a couple of US Air reps who acted like they couldn't care less. We turned around and saw the original woman (Pamela) and made a beeline.

We told Pamela that the hotel they had sent us to was booked and that we needed a place to stay. She promised that she would get back to us in 15 minutes. We parked it on a bench and waited. There was another stranded traveler there who waited with us. I'm not sure of her name, but she's an OB-GYN from Los Angeles. About 45 minutes later Pamela came back and told us that she got "special permission" to put us up at the Ramada. She gave us some names and numbers and told us to go back to the shuttle area... we waved down the shuttle and the driver said they were booked. We all just looked at each other in disbelief! He called the hotel and said that they did have our reservations so we drove to the Ramada. When we got to the Ramada the clerk said that she didn't know what we were talking about... they had been booked since 10pm and no one had called her. Exhausted, we just sat in the lobby to ponder what to do. The Dr. called the contact number Pamela had given her and told her the situation. Pamela talked to the clerk and the clerk said they were booked... I was so frustrated at this point that I knew I was going to cry so I walked away to get a drink. All I wanted was to be on a plane to London!!

Around 2am the Ramada clerk told us that there were several people who didn't show up for their reservations and she would give us their rooms. I was so happy to know that I wasn't going to have to sleep on the airport floor! We checked in and decided to walk to the diner to get some food even thought it was now 3am!! I had not eaten since 1pm and was feeling very nauseated! We ate at the Philly Diner and then walked back to the hotel. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out!!

We asked for a later check out and they gave us until 3pm so that was nice. We left the hotel and went back to the diner and stayed there for several hours... We, of course, had Philly Cheese Steaks since we were in Philly (I had chicken!) When we were walking back to the hotel we were almost back to the entrance and Brad said "That's Danny Bonaduce!" I looked up and sure enough there he was!! You know that I never pass up a celebrity moment so we all took pictures with him. He was great about it and quite accomodating!

So... now we are waiting in the Ramada lobby hoping they don't kick us out. We are heading back to the airport around 8pm and hopefully there will be no problems with the flight. Hopefully, after 24 hours of sheer hell, at 10:45pm tonight we will be headed to Heathrow!

It's been so bad that it can only get better... right?

Birdapalooza

I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted a bird feeder for the back yard. Not that I particularly LIKE birds. I don't mind looking at them but I definitely mind them looking at me (it's the whole eyes on the side of the head thing!) And I definitely don't want them on me. I have seen many a tourist take pictures of themselves with a couple dozen birds (mainly pigeons) on them and they really think it's great. That would NEVER happen with me! Pigeons are rats with wings... just sayin'!

A couple of summers ago Kat and I went to Newport Aquarium and she MADE ME hold the nectar for the lorikeets. I was having a mild panic attack just knowing that the birds were flying around the room and could possibly land on me. To hold the nectar and INVITE them to land on me was a whole other situation! For some reason the birds liked me. I think they smelled fear (do birds smell?) There I was with a bird on my shoulder (and head at one point!) and one on my hand...

Don't I look like Snow White?
Don't be fooled. The smile on my face IS NOT pleasure or joy. While Kat was taking the photo I was muttering "get these fucking birds off of me!" Clearly you can see the folks in the background WANTING the birds to come to them. Look at that guy holding his cup in the air! Look at that girl next to him holding her cup. Why are the birds not on them, I ask?? There were children holding cups of nectar that were looking at me longingly wanting the birds to land on them. I really wanted no part of it. I just knew that the birds were going to poop on me. See what a good sport I am???

I'm not sure why, or at what point I decided to get a bird feeder. The first one I bought was a little fancy and didn't hold much bird seed. I eventually dropped it and it broke. I bought a second one that was a little more sturdy and the birds seemed to enjoy it. I like watching the birds from the window but feeding birds does come with a few problems. Those problems are called squirrels.

Back in the day when my sister and I went camping we always stored our food in Rubbermaid totes which we nicknamed "squirrel protectors" There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning and seeing that your stuff has been gone through at the camp ground and all of your hot dog buns have been nibbled on. Lesson learned! Since purchasing and using the "squirrel protectors" while camping those little bastards have really not been a nuisance to me until I had the brilliant idea to start feeding the birds.

When I bought the first bird feeder I hung it on the fence but that was really quite convenient to the squirrels. I then purchased a shepherd hook hoping that the squirrels could not climb it. I should have known better. Justin and I would watch from the kitchen window and the squirrels would shimmy up that pole and bully the birds away. It was quite an acrobatic feat that those little bastards would do. They would hold on to the pole with their back feet and to the bird feeder with their front feet. Half of the seed would end up on the ground when they jumped off.

I thought that if I put a bowl of bird seed on the ground they would eat from there and would not bother the birds. That wasn't the case. For some reason they enjoyed the bird seed in the bird feeder more. I was tired of the squirrels eating all the food and I really didn't know what to do.

After hearing the saga of the squirrels many people offered advice. Some told me to set up a "squirrel station" with corn cobs and other tasty squirrel food. Others said I should get squirrel safe bird feeders where the weight of the squirrels makes the doors shut but I really didn't want anything that fancy. One day Justin came home and said that his co-worker told him that she puts Vaseline on her shepherd hook so the squirrels can't climb it. I think it's pretty funny that Justin had a conversation at work about my bird feeder/squirrel drama but I loved that fact that I now had this great tip! Why didn't I think of that?

So, one evening I Iubed up the shepherd hook with vaseline and waited for the squirrels to come. I'm not quite sure what happened but for a while no one came... not the squirrels, not the birds. Nothing. I kept checking and was getting pretty frustrated. I had bought a new bird feeder that stored more bird seed and thought maybe the birds didn't like the new feeder. I also thought perhaps there was something in the yard (like a snake) that was scaring them away from coming. Justin and I had many conversations about the lack of birds... maybe they didn't like Vaseline?

About a week passed and little by little the birds returned to the bird feeder. The squirrels came back also and it was great fun to watch them slide down the pole (even though I felt bad about getting their fur messy with Vaseline.) I still put the little bowl of food out for them... I mean, squirrels also have to eat... right? I didn't care that they ate the bird seed - I just didn't want them being bullies and scaring the birds away!

My very own Birdapalooza!
(Notice that the squirrel is on the ground and NOT on the feeder!!
**Don't look at our weeds, dead grass OR the "bush/tree from hell" to the left - thanks!** :)

Powertrain What?

I'll never see my poor little Toyota Corolla again. How sad is that?

Almost 4 weeks ago I was rear-ended in Dayton while on my way to the Dayton Ghost Hunters meeting. I was sitting at an intersection in back of stopped traffic and I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw her coming... and she was not slowing down. I stepped hard on the break and gripped the steering wheel and then she hit me while going 35-40 mph. The rear of my car bounced in the air and then dropped back down. I was pissed but very glad that I didn't hit the guy in front of me. I grabbed my phone and got out of the car to look at the damage. My entire rear end was smashed in and my trunk was popped open. Lovely.

The girl that hit me was apologizing all over the place and I just told her that I really didn't want to chat and then proceeded to call the police. The po-po took 2 hours to arrive, which is strange since this happened really close to my former apartment... not exactly the best area for crime so there is usually patrol cars on constant rotation throughout the area. We did all the usual swapping of insurance information, she got a ticket and we all went about our merry way.

A couple of days later the insurance appraiser came to my job and did his thing... I was told a day later that they decided that my car was a total loss and I had a decision to make. Either I keep the car, get a salvage title and they will send me a settlement of $1,800 or I release the car and they will give me a settlement of $3,100. I was really ticked because either way, I was now going to have to buy a new car and have a car payment. It was really nice NOT having a car payment for over a year! I chose to release the car and started looking online at car dealerships.

I knew that if I was going to have a car payment that I wanted to get something that I would be happy driving. I have no clue about cars. I never look at cars while on the road and I have no "dream car." When I bought my Corolla I took my sister with me and she was being all butch talking about the engine had this and that and all I was curious about was if it had cup holders and automatic windows! I don't know about engines or anything that might actually be important when choosing a car. These are things that I usually would ask my Dad but that was not an option so I was on my own. I definitely wanted something that handled well in the snow so that is what I looked for (okay... AND excellent cup holders.)

I decided to focus on CR-V's and Jeeps. I liked the way they looked so I started looking online for pricing. I knew that if I went with a larger car I would have to pay more for gas so I weighed the pros and cons... I really wanted a Jeep. I went last week to the car dealership near my job and decided that I loathe car salesmen. They are so slimy. I specifically told them what I was looking for and they kept showing me cars that I would never own... like a Ford Taurus. Um, no. It's fine for someone else, but not for me! I was getting frustrated and I think they could tell. The last car they showed me was a Jeep Liberty... it was exactly what I wanted. I test drove it and loved it.

I went home that night and talked it over with Justin and also looked up the Jeep on CarFax. Everything looked great... I had a major internal debate with myself about buying a small suv with gas prices they way they are. I knew I would pay a lot more for gas since my Corolla got 30 mpg and the Jeep only gets 23! I decided to get it anyway. I went the next day and started th buying process and used my settlement-to-come as a down payment.

I drove the car home and found out that the speedometer does not work if you go over 40 mph... when I test drove it I only drove it around the block and never went over 35. Also, when I went to get in the car later that night the alarm started going off and I realized they never gave me a keyless entry for the alarm! After a small panic attack I jumped in the car and turned it on to stop the alarm. Not fun. I called them first thing in the morning and the person who sold me the car (the assistant manager) was not there. I was told to come the next day for the keyless remote. When I got there at 4pm the next day I was told that the service garage was closed... apparently they have to MAKE a keyless remote for me.

Ugh.

I was also told that I needed to call the salesman the next morning to arrange a time to bring my car in to get the speedometer fixed. later that night I met Justin at home and we drove back to the dealership to pick up my Corolla. I told Justin to drive the Jeep home because my Corolla was no longer insured. While he was driving it the "check engine" light came on. Good Lord.

The next morning I called the dealership first thing and was told to continue driving it and bring it in on Monday after work, which is what I did. When I got there they told me that they didn't have a loaner car for me and could I bring it back today. At this point I am so over the car situation because I have also been dealing with the insurance company having to get POA paperwork notarized, getting a salvage title, etc.

Today I took the car to the dealership (again!) and they finally gave me a loaner car. It's a Mazda 5 and I feel like a grandma in it! I guess I can't complain... at least they gave me a car to deive while mine is getting fixed! So, now my Jeep is at the dealership hopefully getting serviced. Can the car drama please end?!

When I came home today my poor little Corolla that was parked in the front of the house is gone which makes me a little sad. I knew that the salvage company was coming to pick it up today. Sadzies. That was a damn good car to me! It drove like crap in the snow, but I never really had any major problems with it... and it had 175k miles on it - I was just breaking it in! Let's hope that my Jeep does just as well! All of this headache because of that dumb girl in Dayton that forgot what breaks are for!

Here's a positive thought... At least I look cuter in the Jeep than I did in my Corolla that needed a paint job... right?

Stupid dumb car payment and extra car insurance costs!!! Drats.

Pepper

I really wanted chicken and noodles last night. You know... the super-tasty -perfect-for winter dish that has the really good, thick noodles? I could have been very industrious and made the noodles homemade, but why do that when the Devils Playground has the frozen (and just as good) kind for $1.78? I needed dog food anyway, so off to the store I went.

I was in the spice aisle looking for onion powder when I heard someone say "Do you know anything about buying pepper?" I turned around and there was this little old man talking to me. He was holding one of those tins of black pepper and looked absolutely confused. I asked him what kind of pepper he was looking for and what kind of pepper dispenser he had. He said he wanted regular pepper that you use with a regular shaker. He then went on to say that his wife died 4 years ago and the she always bought the pepper. I told him sorry for his loss and that the pepper he had in his hand is exactly the kind of pepper he needed for a regular shaker. The man then asked me if I knew where the mayonnaise was and I told him aisle 4 with the salad dressing. He said thank you very much for the help with the pepper then made his way to aisle 4.

I have been thinking about this meeting for the past 24 hours. My initial reaction was "How can you not know how to buy pepper?!" Of course I have come up with a million scenarios of what his life with his wife was like. Was he just a jerk who was the bread winner and thought that a woman's place was in the kitchen, so of course she was responsible for the buying of the pepper... or was he just a really nice guy who took great care of his wife and in return, she took care of him and made sure he never wanted for things like pepper?

The quiet and thoughtful pause he gave when he said she used to buy the pepper has ultimately convinced me that he's just a nice guy who misses his wife dearly and would probably give anything to not be at the store asking a total stranger about pepper.

I think life has different ways of reminding you - if you listen - that you should not take things for granted. I truly think this was one of those lessons.

Whispers Estate Birthday

I really wanted to do something special for my birthday so my original thought was to go to Prospect Place outside of Columbus. Around the time I started making plans I had been listening to the Ghostly Talk podcast and Doug, who is one of the hosts, started talking about all the experiences he had when he stayed at Whispers Estate, a haunted bed and breakfast in Mitchell, Indiana, which happens to be Justin's hometown. Doug was saying that his stay at Whispers and the things that he experienced changed his entire view of the paranormal. I thought that was quite a bold statement and with all of the great EVP's that they played on the show I knew that I had to go there and check it out for myself!

I emailed Doug to get his opinion on what room I should request when I contacted the owner of the B&B, Jarret, and he said Rachael's room had the most comfortable bed. I then emailed Jarret to see if he had Rachael's room open for January 19th. I waited for over a week and still had not heard from him so I called the number on the website, which is his cell phone. It took a while, but I finally heard from him and we were confirmed for my haunted birthday extravaganza!

During my short membership with the mentally challenged (most of them, anyway) Ohio Ghost Chasers, I became friends with one of the gals named Amanda. She is friends with Jarret and stays at the house frequently so she arranged to come with her husband John. She called me Friday night and told me that there would be a paranormal group from Indiana there as well. I'm always interested in meeting new people so I didn't think much of it.

I picked Justin up and we headed to Indiana. When we got to the area Justin wanted to show me a couple of places in the area including a place called Bonds Chapel where there is a strange phenomena happening on one of the graves. I think there are several stories about the grave but the most popular legend is that the man buried there was killed by a chain and soon after his burial an image, almost fossil-like and in the shape of a cross, appeared on his tombstone. His family eventually removed the tombstone and replaced it with a new one and shortly after, the same image appeared again. According to Justin, scientists and experts have come to the chapel to study it and no one can seem to figure out how or why it's happening.

Being the very curious person that I am, I reached out and started to run my finger down the center of the cross and no sooner than I did that I heard Justin say "They say It's bad luck to touch it". I don't think he was even paying attention to me so the fact that he said it right as I was touching it was pretty funny. Of course Justin immediately started telling me that I was cursed. I tried to wipe my finger off on Justin's pants but I'm afraid that had no effect on the curse. I also tried to get Justin to say some sort of blessing on my finger, which I could not take out of the pointing position. Justin claimed that he didn't know any cursed finger blessings but I really don't believe him. I suppose we will see in time!

It was getting late so we made our way to Whispers. We were on country roads so I practiced driving on the wrong side of the road like they do in Europe on our way. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. We finally arrived and knocked on the door. We could see the members of the paranormal group through the door and they just stared at us. Obviously they heard us knock and they just stared at us. I guess someone must have told Amanda so she came and let us in. We went to the dining room and introduced ourselves to Jarret, who was sitting at the dining room table. There were so many people from the paranormal group there that we couldn't even get a count of how many there were. No one was talking to us and they were giving us dirty looks so I finally walked into the parlor and said "Hi, my name is Pam and this is my fiance, Justin, and we are from Ohio"... you could almost hear the crickets. They mumbled a hello and that is about it. I turned back around and just said "wow!"

Amanda gave us a quick tour of the house and Justin and I decided to go get dinner in Bedford so we told Amanda that we would be back shortly. After a tasty meal at Mama's we went back to Whispers and brought our stuff in. We started to go up the stairs and there was a contraption with a couple of cameras blocking the way. We stopped and I looked at the paranormal group as if to say "uh, can you move this thing?" and again, they just stared back at us. Someone suggested we go around, but there was only 5" between the camera and the wall. After a couple of minutes their groups leader came and moved it and we went up to our room. Justin told me earlier that he felt the group thought that they would have full run of the house and didn't like the fact that we were there and I absolutely agreed with him.

We hung out for a bit because it seemed that the group was in every corner of the house and there was no place to go. Finally, around midnight the group that was in the attic came down and we made our way upstairs. It was freezing and I really should have layered more! We all took our positions, turned out the lights and turned on our recorders and waited for something to happen. After 10 minutes or so I had this totally creeped out feeling that someone was behind me because my back was to the door, which is totally open. I moved to the floor and Justin followed me. We started hearing some strange sounds including knocking on the floor. Some play jacks were thrown and a long screw was dropped/thrown on my leg. The screw had been on the right side of me, where no one was, and was thrown on my left leg. There is no way someone could have gotten that screw without me knowing it.

At one point we heard something move across the floor and debated on if it was a mouse... a very fast mouse! There was also the sound of something being dragged across the floor that freaked all of us out and then some shuffling footsteps and everyone was sitting down. The stuff that was happening definitely made me question what was happening because we just couldn't explain it all.

Whispers is known for it's audible voices and that is what I was really hoping for. At one point Jarret was standing up talking to us and we all heard a voice behind him. I have only listened to half of my audio so I'll have to see if it picked it up.

Around 2am Jarret came back upstairs and said that the paranormal group was baking a cherry pie, which we could already smell all the way up in the attic. This group had a whole buffet set up with pizza's, several crockpots, cheesecake, cheese and many other things. I really could not believe that they were baking a pie in the middle of the night! One of the things about the house is that you sometimes smell the cologne of the former doctor that used to live and practice there. How can you smell his cologne and know that he is around if there is cherry pie baking? This group was wacky!

We went downstairs to warm up for a bit and then ended up going to several parts of the house to do more EVP work. We decided to go to bed around 4am. We had a couple of snacks because at that point we were both hungry and then went to sleep... at least I did. I woke up at 6am and went to the bathroom and when I came back Justin went. When Justin came back to the room he locked the door and started to come back to bed. All of the sudden someone in the hall tried vigorously to open the door and it scared the crap out of me. I could not believe that they tried to get in our room at 6am!!

I went back to sleep and woke again at 9am and again went to the bathroom. I closed the door to our room and walked down the hallway and when I came back there was one of their female member standing in our doorway advancing her 35mm camera. I was so stunned that I couldn't think of anything to say. She looked at me and all I could manage was "Excuse me, there's someone sleeping in there!", meaning Justin, and she smiled at me and said "I know" - I know my mouth was hanging open in disbelief!! What nerve it took to open our door and start taking photos with Justin in bed!! Did they have no common sense at all??? I got into bed and told Justin about what happened and he said he was up when she came in but he didn't say anything. I'm really considering writing an email to the leader of the group because I still can't believe the nerve!

A bit after the intrusion we got up and went downstairs and the wacky paranormal group was packing up and leaving. I felt so bad for Jarret because they made an absolute mess of his hardwood floors from coming in and out and also of his kitchen because of their smorgasbord. The group finally left and there was a sigh of relief from all. We stayed and chatted for a bit and finally went upstairs to get our things. Jarret ended up giving us a complimentary stay because of us having to put up with the wacky ghost hunters all night, which I thought was awesome of him. He told us to come back for a more intimate stay with just him and Amanda and John, which we hope to do in the near future.

We left Whispers and had lunch in Bedford and were soon on our way back home... I had a lot of fun and the thought of turning 39 barely crossed my mind, which is a good thing! When I got home I called Doug from Ghostly Talk to tell him about our stay and we decided that we should meet at Whispers soon so we can really experience the house the way it's meant to be... without the wacky, intruding, cherry pie-baking weirdo's from Southern Indiana!!

Just sayin'!!

Hootie Drunkfest

I'm probably the only person you know that would drive 2 hours just to see Hootie & the Blowfish and I'm not afraid to admit it. I can't even count how many times I have seen them starting with their college days at USC. They are lowcountry boys and for the most part, I probably relate more to the lowcountry than any place I have ever lived. I just like their music.

It's always strange seeing Hootie play someplace other than South Carolina. I am so used to seeing them at the Music Farm and small venues around town. People at the Hootie shows in Charleston usually act very casual and I suppose it's because they are such a part of the scene in town... like it's no big deal to see Darius Rucker at a concert the prior week. I remember just before I moved from Charleston I went to see Blues Traveler with some friends at the Music Farm. We were standing on the balcony and I looked down and saw Darius. My friend Devin noticed him the same time I did and asked me if I wanted to meet him. You all know how I am about the celebrity hunt but I declined to be officially introduced. I've met Darius at his own shows but it just seemed too intrusive to bother him when he was out enjoying music on his own time.

The show in Indianapolis was strange. It was actually a weekend-long event called "Ribfest" which is just about as trashy sounding as you can get. There are a ton of vendors that sell BBQ and the others sell... well... beer and liquor. The layout of the place was incredibly hard to follow and it was hot. BBQ + beer & liquor + hot weather = obnoxious drunk people.

Justin and I walked around for a bit and found the tent where Rupert from Survivor: Pearl Islands was signing autographs. I must say that he was probably the nicest celebrity that I have ever met. We put a couple of dollars in his donation jar of the charity he started called "Rupert's Kids" and he said thank you then asked if I wanted an autograph. He took a picture with both Justin and myself and was just so accomodating. He really couldn't have been nicer.

We continued our walk around the park and discussed how we could not believe how much food and drinks were. Everything you bought had to be purchased with tickets. The tickets were 7 for $10 and a bottle of Coke was 3 tickets if that tells you anything! I bought a shaved ice which was cold and delicious and made my tongue turn blue which pleased me to no end. We knew that Big Head Todd & the Monsters were coming on at 6:30 so we made our way back to the VIP section to catch the show.

At this point most of the people were milling about the park so the crowd for Big Head Todd was not humongous and most seats in the VIP section were still vacant. We (kind of) met a family that was sitting in front of us. The little boy was wearing a t-shirt that said "Future Rock Star" and the little girl was wearing a t-shirt that said something about punk rock. I can't remember exactlys. The mom asked me how I knew about Big Head Todd and I told her that I had been a long-time fan and she made a comment about how many young people that were there and how she was wondering how they knew about Big Head Todd. I told her that not many of them were in the VIP section since those seats were not free and the others were... Both her kids, who were about 7-8 years old, I am guessing, knew most all of the Big Head Todd lyrics, which amused me greatly. I wondered to myself if Justin and I ever have kids, will they know the lyrics to Tori Amos and Siouxsie songs?

After BHT was over we walked around decided to grab some super-expensive food and drink. We only had a couple of tickets left and had to plan out what we were going to buy. Neither of us wanted to get any more tickets because of the ridiculous price! We managed to feed ourselves with the couple of ticket we had. It was literally BBQ fest food rationing!

Hootie was going to come on so we headed back to the VIP section. I told Justin that I wanted to go up front when they started playing so I could get some pictures. When I saw the crowd gathering I went up front and was basically the third person back. I could immediately tell the crowd was very drunk and knew that it was going to get bad. When the show started I knew I was definitely not in Charleston. These people acted like The Who was onstage! I kind of stood there in disbelief while looking around at the crowd. Perhaps I'm jaded and have just seen them so many times that I wasn't getting all fan-girly about it like everyone else. I mean, it's Hootie and the Blowfish... come on!

I started taking some pictures and it seemed that each time I tried to, this girl behind me would knock into me. At first I just turned around and she would say "oh sorry!" but then she became so obnoxious that it was really getting out of control. She was incredibly drunk and I really wanted to hurt her. She kept pushing me, leaned on me, rested her heavy-with-drunkness arms on my shoulders... I kept pushing her off of me and finally turned around told her to stay the fuck off of me. I asked her how it was that I had not touched the people in front of me yet she could not stay off of me? She looked at me with glazed over eyes and said "I don't even know what you just said!" Even the guy next to me was getting battered and had words with her. She hit me one last time so I turned around and grabbed her right arm and gave her the biggest Indian Burn that I have given anyone since the 6th grade. I looked her in the eye and said "you won't feel it now, but you'll feel it tomorrow!" She disappeared after that and I wonder if she remembered me the next day?

This incident made me think about a couple of things. First of all, why is it called an "Indian" Burn? I have discussed this with my friend Becky and we think that most Native Americans surely had other means of warfare... don't you think? Or, perhaps this is some weird custom in India that we don't know about. Half the people I work with are from India... maybe I should ask? The second thing I thought after this incident was when my friend Mark and I went to see the Sugarcubes in Atlanta in 1988. We were in the front row and this girl kept trying to pry her way between us. After pushing her away for nearly an hour, Mark finally grabbed the fleshy part under her arm, pinched it and twisted it really hard. This made her leave. I wonder why people act so stupid at concerts?

Back to Hootie...

Halfway into the show I looked back toward the seats and all I could see was a sea of people. I was wearing flip-flops and the thought of getting stepped on by drunk people didn't seem too appealing. I decided to stay put and not fight the crowd. Poor Justin was all alone but I found out later he was busy replacing me with a new girlfriend during the show and not so lonely, after all! :)

After the show I was waiting for the crowd to move and this girl pushed into me and practically knocked me over. I pushed her off of me and she turned around and said "Are you fucking kidding me, bitch, what is your problem?" I just looked at her and said "uh, you pushed me over" and she said she was knocked over... ummm, okay. My adrenaline was sky high and I really wanted to smack her but all I could imagine was Justin looking over and seeing me and this 90 lb. troll in a fight so I just decided that it was time to get the hell out of Indiana and walked away as I listened to her talk crap about me the whole way back to Justin.

I made Justin promise me that he won't ever let me go to the front of a crowd during a dunk-fest concert again...

I think that was the most traumatic Hootie show I have ever been to!

Pics from the show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skitpero/sets/72157601838106174/

Taxing Situations

I had to share this story...

Tuesday morning I attended the funeral of my friends father. On the way back to work I stopped at the Walgreen's to get a couple of things. I bought two soda's (or "pop" for you Ohioans) and went to the register to check out.

Behind the register were two girls in their late twenties/early thirties. One was a trainee (according to her nametag) and the other was (apparently) the trainer. I put my things on the counter and the trainee went to ring up the first of the drinks. The register beeped and didn't ring up the drink at all. The trainer said "those are $1.29 each" to the trainee. I interrupted that they were on sale two for $2. The trainer said the first one will ring up regular price and the second one will ring up the difference. Okay dokey.

Well, the second one rang up $1.29, also. The trainer looked really confused and a line started forming in back of me. The trainer told the trainee that the drinks would should ring up for a total of $2.14 so the trainer took over and proceeded to ring up one drink for $1.14 and the other for a $1. I still had other things for them to ring up so I asked why she rang up the soda's for a total (before tax) of $2.14 and she said "oh, it's the total with the tax" and I said "well, most of the time you ring up the product for the price, then you hit "total" and the register will automatically add the tax"

The trainer looked really confused and I continued... "so basically you are going to double tax me if you ring it up with the tax already added and then hit total, taxing me again." I really could not even believe that I was having this conversation with an adult... the same adult that was training another employee.

The trainer looked at me, then at the trainee (who had stepped out of the way of the super (not really) confusing situation and then said "I don't know what that means" and I just said "trust me!" I looked back at the people standing in back of me in line and they were all nodding in agreement with me. The trainer said with a slight attitude "it's not my fault they aren't ringing up in the register!"

I'm not sure what that last comment had to do with figuring out how not to double tax people but... whatever!

Reminds me of the song "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies that Becky and I sing to each other on occasion:

"all I wanted was a Pepsi and she wouldn't give it to me..."

RaspuDIVA

I keep telling myself that I am too old to go out on a "school night" but sometimes these things just can't be helped. We had tickets to see Rasputina at the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky. The venue is this gorgeous old home that has been transformed into a concert hall. There is a history of the house on the website, but I really wish there photos of what the house looked like on the inside before it was altered.

We arrived pretty early and watched the opening act My Brightest Diamond, which was actually just the lead singer, Shara Worden. As the show progressed I quickly realized how much I appreciate the smoking ban in Ohio. Being that we were in Kentucky there were smokers galore and soon my eyes were itchy and watery and with every breath I took in, I inhaled smoke. The smell of cloves made me want to vomit. I was pretty miserable but tried to not think about it. I told Justin that whenever we move anywhere it must be in a smoke-free state! My eyes are still burning almost 24-hours later.

Rasputina finally came on and their outfits were amazing! Corsets, skirts and lovely hair... the girls were gorgeous. They played a lot from thier new album and a couple of old ones. I was sad that they didn't play 'Transylvanian Concubine' or 'The Olde Headboard'... They did, however play 'Wish You Were Here', which is (although a cover song by Pink Floyd) is probably my favorite that they do! I just love the cello in it... so haunting.

We were sitting in the balcony area and had a great view of the stage and audience. During the show there were several people that were slightly irritating. There was the clapper guy who kept clapping to no particular beat and then most irritating was the obnoxious bald guy who kept yelling out song titles during the show when he wasn't trying to chat up the band between songs. Rasputina's lead singer, Melora, took a couple of minutes between songs to chat with the audience. She made the comment to other band members that this was the chattiest audience she had ever encountered in her entire career. It was at this point that we realized how snatchy a wanna-be diva Melora really is.

People were asking her questions and she would snap back a nasty comment. For instance... One girl told her that this was her bachelorette party and Melora said "What am I supposed to do about that?" then another person requested a song to be played to which Melora responded "Maybe if you had pronounced it correctly we might have played it!" There were several other snatchy comments but I've apparently blocked them out! Justin will have to remind me!

After the show we (of course!) waited around to meet the band. The drummer, Jonathan, was busy packing everything up and moving so fast that I didn't really want to bother him. We moved from place to place to try to figure out where and when Melora and Sarah would be coming out. We moved back downstairs and finally met up with Sarah who was super nice and very willing to take a picture with us. We asked her when Melora was coming out and she said she was doing an interview and probably would not be available. I didn't like that answer!

We proceeded with our stalking and eventually planted ourselves outside of the door that led to the dressing rooms. There were two other people waiting as well. The entire hall was basically clear of people with the exception of the staff and band members. After several minutes Melora finally came out and headed downstairs. We headed the other way with hopes of catching her before she left. We had already talked about the fact that it seemed that she was in a bad mood so we weren't surprised at what followed!

Melora was signing something for the other people that had been waiting and then headed for the stage to pack her cello and other things up. Justin caught her attention and told her that it was a great show to which she snapped "thanks!" and turned around. I walked to the other side and called her name. She turned around and said "Yes?" and I said "Would you mind taking a quick picture with us" and she said "Well, I need to pack up my things" and I (not taking no for an answer!) said "no problem... we will wait... take your time!" And wait we did! She packed everything up and at one point we offered to help her carry some of the heavier things out and all she said was "you can help by getting out of the way of the ramp!" Ummmm... Is her name Melora or Madonna? Anyway, she came back and said "Now... what did you want?" And we took a quick picture and got the hell away from Grumpzilla.

On the way home Justin and I discussed all of our celebrity encounters and decided that this was probably one of the rudest "celebrities" we have ever met! I think it's so disappointing because we both love Rasputina and will we forevermore think of this incident when we hear those beautiful cello's and gorgeous voices? I could (maybe) understand her behaviour if there was a mob of people but there were only four of us! I think someone forgot that people like us are the reason that she can even afford to do what she loves while touring the world.

The Devil in disguise... Justin and I with Melora (aka "Grumpzilla") of Rasputina. See how she traumatized Justin?? He won't even get close to her!!!

Rasputina!

Soft Clothes

Today at work all I could think about was going home and putting some on some soft clothes and just relaxing. I am really stressed at work. It is a huge business that apparently has never been caught up as far as their billing goes. I started there 3 months ago and finally got it caught up within a month. Last month we acquired a bunch of crackhead patients from another pain doctor that lost his license. These patients are so drugged up on pain medications that they have no idea what insurance they have and the pain clinic staff doesn't seem to mind that the patients give them half of their demographic information, which makes my job a nightmare. I really could go on forever because there are so many issues. I guess when I complained that I was bored at my last job, the Gods/Goddesses were listening and smacked me upside the head with the complete opposite!

For the last few days my neck and shoulders have been killing me. I have a hard time turning my head and have a lot of spasms radiating to my shoulder blades. At first I thought I might have slept wrong, but I really do think it is stress induced. At work I really have to concentrate on what I am doing because of all the rules that go along with each department and doctor numbers so I usually put on my earphones and tune everyone out. Today, in the middle of keying I realized how tense my body was. I started questioning if I was always like that or was it just the music I was listening to? I think that I get so involved with what I am doing that I don't really relax. I need to pay more attention to that!

This past week has been very hectic! I saw a lot of Justin, which was nice. Hopefully he's not tired of looking at my face since he saw me four days in a row! I think that is a record for us. I know that we have done 3 days in a row, but I'm not too sure about 4. You might think that is a weird thing to think about, but considering that we live an hour away from each other it really is hard to arrange time to see each other. With his work, my work and his school we are lucky to have 2 days a week.... so, 4 was nice!

Wednesday night we went to see the True Colors Tour in Columbus. It was also the 10 month anniversary of my first date with Justin that only I find important, but I digress...

The concert tickets were an outrageous $72 and we found out that ONLY $1 goes to HRC and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. That is insane! They only used half of the coliseum and that wasn't even sold out. I really think that they should have used the entire coliseum and lowered ticket prices AND donated more than a damn dollar to the causes. I know that a couple of my friends didn't go because the tickets were so damn expensive.

Justin had been reading reviews about the first couple of dates and he told me that Debbie Harry was getting really bad reviews. She wasn't playing any Blondie songs (perhaps royalty issues?) and one of the dates she was MIA! How can she just not show up?? Also, she didn't do the meet and greets like everyone else did after their performances and she didn't join the rest of the acts for the finale of Cyndi Laupers song "True Colors". What a diva! I was pretty disgusted by all of this before we even went to the concert.

When we arrived we walked into the coliseum and heard The Dresden Dolls. I really thought the other bands would have still been on! We quickly found our seats and watched the rest of their set. Luckily enough we didn't miss much and we got to see them perform all of our favorite songs. By the way, can Amanda Palmer be any hotter???

After Dresden Dolls finished their set, Margaret Cho came onstage and said that they would be signing autographs by the merchandise tables during Debbie Harry's set. Justin looked and me and I think we both questioned what we had just heard! I was pretty much like "screw Debbie Harry... I want to meet the Dresden Dolls!" So off we went. The line was long and I think I was the oldest person in the line... well, maybe one or two people were older than me. I did go back in the coliseum to watch Debbie for a few minutes so I can at least say I saw her perform. I had met her years before so I really didn't care so much, especially since her attitude about the tour was a little snatchy.

After waiting for what seemed like forever we finally had out turn with Brian and Amanda. Justin asked both of them to marry him. I'm not sure what to think about that... Brian said they would all have to move to L.A. so I guess I will be single again whenever the tour ends :) They were both accomodating and fabulous and well worth missing Debbie Harry for!!!

When we headed back to our seats we ran into Jeffrey, whom we met at the Johnette Napolitano show a couple of weeks ago. He wore his special yellow jumpsuit just for me! Turns out that his seat was near ours... not that he sat in it. He pretty much danced through the show in his yellow jumpsuit in the area where no one was sitting. People kept taking pictures of him because, really... who wears a yellow jumpsuit to a concert?

Erasure played the next set after Debbie. Who knew that the homosexuals loved their Erasure so much?! There were actually several people that left after their set. Why would you pay that much money and skip seeing Cyndi Lauper?? That's crazy. Speaking of Cyndi. She was phenomenal! She put on an amazing show! I have always loved her, but I really do have a whole new respect for her.

Work the next day was not fun. I decided I am way too old to be going out on school nights! That night Justin was in town so we met for dinner.

On Friday Justin's tarot guild was having an open night so all of us Muggles could go and see what exactly they are up to. It was a session on the Akashic Record, which I think it really interesting. We had to do this exercise on free-form writng and I just couldn't do it. I was alone, sitting in a quiet area, trying to concentrate and I felt like if I started to write, I would start cyring. I'm glad I wasn't on my period or we would have ALL been in trouble! I chose to write nothing. I just didn't want to expose myself like that, even though I knew that no one would ever see what I wrote. I felt like the flood gates would open and I try so hard to keep them in check... ya know?

So... Saturday was our second White Trash night... or "WT Night" as we so lovingly call it. Last week Justin and Becky came over and we made Chef Boyardee pizza's that come in a box. None of us had them since we were kids so we bought a couple and hung out. We were going to make beautiful jewelry, but sadly, my supplies hadn't arrived yet! This past Saturday night it was only Justin and I since Becky was out of town. We decided to make Manwiches and tater tots. I mean, really... you can't get much more WT than that! It actually was really good if I do say so myself! I am quite the WT chef!

Our original plan was to eat our WT cuisine, make some fabulous jewelry (since I had received all of my lovely supplies!) and watch "The Queen", which we have been wanting to see. Turns out that we only had time to eat dinner and make some jewelry. Turns out that I am not only the Jackson Pollack of house painting, but also of jewelry making! The soldering iron is incredibly hot and I am sure am am bound to melt some metal onto my skin eventually. Justin said I get "easily frustrated"... I might be easily frustrated, BUT I am, without a doubt, the Queen of Patience!

Sunday Becky and I had made plans to find a place to go swimming. If you are not aware, Ohio is quite possibly the world worst place to go swimming. The lakes are dirty and filled with oil and gas from the boats and jet ski's. We decided to go to the water park to float on the lazy river and dodge children running around out of control. Sounds fun, huh? Well, we get to the park at 11:30 and the damn thing doesn't open until 1pm. What kind of a water park opens up at 1pm on a weekend? That's crazy. I told Becky I felt like the Griswolds pulling up to Wally World when we pulled in and saw no cars! Oh well! On to plan B.

We went to Caesars Creek (which I am re-naming "Petrol Lake") and put our blanket down in a nice open spot. As our luck would have it, whenever someone came they would put their blanket right next to ours even though there were several wide open spaces. Can someone tell me why this happens?? We proceeded to take off our shorts and shirts and examined our not-ready-for-bathing-suit bodies. For the next couple of minutes we pointed out (literally) all of our flawed and unhappily fat areas of our bodies. My bathing suit is in serious need of retirement. It's too big and the butt just doesn't fit anymore. I have this major sag when I come out of the water, which isn't fun, really. I have to constantly pull the ass up since it's so big.

When we arrived I, of course, did the beach check of seeing if there was anyone with less of a tan or scarier in a bathing suit than me... and thankfully there was, so all was good. What wasn't good was when the extremely hot group of girls sat right next to us. Don't they know that they are breaking the most sacred beach rule? When you are hot, you sit with the other hot people and leave us mediocre people to be miserable on the beach in our too-big bathing suits and extremely white bodies! Ugh! The girls were foreign and spoke a language we couldn't place. I took turns between cursing them silently for sitting next to us with their perfect butts (and they were perfect!) and then wondering if the Dairy Corner would be open when we left for ice cream.

Yes... it's been a hard week. Thank God for soft clothes!

Decorum

Today, in the funeral procession for Justin's father, we were the second car behind the hearse. The ride to the cemetery was on a long and winding country road with lots of hills and incredibly green farmland. It's quite beautiful out there, really.

You would really have to love the quiet of the country to enjoy living out as far out as this was. The houses are few and far between with your closest neighbor a quarter of a mile away. The lawns, for the most part, are neatly mowed and beautifully manicured. This is the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and it seems that no one is a stranger, which is very refreshing.

During our drive from the funeral home to the cemetery I noticed a man standing on his lawn tending to his flowers. Just as we were about to pass he turned around and saw the hearse with it's stream of following cars. In an instant, and without thought, he took off his hat and held it over his heart and stood silently as we passed.

It was one of the most touching and beautiful things I have ever witnessed and I don't think I will ever forget the quiet sorrow of that moment for as long as I live.

Soldering Blues

In case you were wondering... yes! It is hard being a future fabulous jewelry designer!

I regularly read the LiveJournal blog of this girl that lives in Texas. I think I found her after she posted a mix on Art of the Mix - one of my favorite websites. The other day she posted a blog about this piece of jewelry that she bought on my current favorite website Etsy. I have seen this type of jewelry before but I suppose I just never paid attention. After looking endlessly online at all of the pendants that the designers made, I thought to myself that I could do that just as well as they could! I soon became obsessed with the idea of creating my own wonderful masterpieces!

Today, after work, I went to find the supplies that I needed to make my lovely little pieces of art. I bought a tutorial from one of the jewelry makers on Etsy which is very detailed and informative. I started out at Home Depot and left empty handed. I couldn't find anything that I needed with the exception of the lead free soldering wire. From there I went to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Wal-mart, Lowe's Sears and Radio Shack. Not one of those bastards had my supplies! I actually went to the mall... that's how bad it was! Apparently no one in Dayton carries a 100 watt soldering iron and gel flux!

So... what's a girl to do? I now have to order my supplies online instead of having what pleases me most = instant gratification!

I have said it before and I will say it again...

In other news... for those of you that have asked (and don't act like you didn't!) my sidewalk soap is no more :( It finally disappeared about two weeks ago. I came home from work one day and it was just gone. It was there that morning and then vanished into thin air. I am thinking that the guy who mows my lawn threw it away. He's quite handy with getting rid of all the trash that mysteriously ends up in my yard and no one else's! He probably wasn't aware that the soap was beloved by so many people! I was sad to see it go. The only thing that is left is the small spot of sidewalk with soapy residue on Xenia Avenue.

sigh.

Fruit & Underwear

I miss buying fruit in the South. I miss driving down Highway 17 after a day at the beach and seeing the farmers with their trucks on the side of the road selling their fresh vegetables and fruit. I miss being able to buy a half bushel of peaches or nectarines for a couple of bucks and enjoying them for the rest of the drive... wind-blown hair, salt on our skin and peach juice dripping down our chins. Yep, I miss that.

Today I was at Wal-Mart and saw that watermelon's were on "sale" for $3.00. Normally they are about $4.99 throughout the summer so I usually go without, even though I love watermelon (actually that goes for most fruit in Ohio!) I decided to be adventurous and bought one for myself. I worked in the grocery store business for 7 (long!) years so I pretty much know how to tell if fruit is ripe or not. After checking out the melons I picked one and tried to be optimistic about it being a good one. After a couple of hours chilling the fridge I cut it open and it was just mediocre. I just give up. I had the same problem when I lived in Illinois - the fruit was ridiculously expensive and never REALLY good.

I hate to be snatchy about fruit but I'm having a moment.

After my Wal-Mart excursion I was taking out my trash and to do so I have to walk out my kitchen door, then through the back door, across the back yard and into the garage to the back alley. When I walked out into the backyard I noticed something colorful on the ground. It was a pair of my underwear. They were flattened and quite dirty. I picked them up and they were as stiff as a board (not by my doing, mind you!) How odd is that?! The only time I go in the backyard (aka "poopville" thanks to my landlord and his two dogs) is to take out the trash. I parked in the garage a couple of times this past winter but that's about it.

How did my underwear end up in the back yard? It's just weird.

Mixed Berries

I love festivals. I really do. Ohio has A LOT of festivals for many things and I was thinking today about how odd it is that South Carolina doesn't really have a lot of festivals. We had The Grits Festival in St. George. I don't like grits, but I would always go since it was the only festival around. I always wanted to and enter the "Rolling in the Grits" contest. Basically you get weighed before the event. Then you roll around in a huge pool of grits and the person who has the most grits stuck to them wins. My thought was bigger body = more grits. However, I just didn't like the idea of getting weighed in front of hundreds of people.

Then, we had The Chitlin Strut in Salley, SC. I never went to this festival because ... well, it scared me a little. I have had people tell me that this is, by far, the smelliest festival they have ever attended. Ugh.

My favorite festival in South Carolina was the Gullah Festival. I noticed on their website that they actually moved it from St. Helena Island to Beaufort, which I think is tragic since St. Helena Island is much more a part of the Gullah culture than Beaufort. They are also now charging $20 to attend on some days - WOW! When I went years ago it was a small festival for FREE. I mean, who pays to go to a festival? That's just crazy.

We had other festivals in S.C.... really small ones like the Greek Fest and really large ones like the week long Spoleto Festival and Piccolo Spoleto, but these are nothing like the festivals here.

People in Ohio are serious about their festivals and I appreciate that.

Today Justin and I went to the Strawberry Festival in Troy. I was dreading the amount of people that were going to be there, but I like to go to festivals and I like strawberries so off we were. When we got there we met up with Andy, Dawn and their cute fairy baby (Tyler) and walked through the main drag of the festival. Andy and Dawn had been there for a while so they headed out and Justin and I walked back through to look at all the vendors.

The sky was starting to get really dark and we felt a couple of rain drops. The temperature dropped and it was actually quite comfortable compared to the scorching heat earlier in the day. We made it through half of the festival and it started pouring rain. At first it wasn't so bad but then the downpour came. Justin wanted to look at a particular vendors jewelry so we made it to their tent. There were a ton of people in there hiding out from the rain. We stayed there for a bit because it was really coming down. Soon we heard a HUGE clap of thunder which scared pretty much everyone in the tent since it was very loud and very close.

The wind picked up and we all started holding on to the tent so it wouldn't blow away. We could see across the way that other tents were bending in the wind and threatening to fall over. It was quite surreal. I told Justin that I had an image of when the rain stops that we would all creep out like the Munchkins did when the house fell on the Wicked Witch. It was quite a strong little storm.

When we finally did leave the tent we saw an ambulance coming down the main drag of the festival. Most people had run for their cars but there were a couple hundred of us fools that stuck around. They kept making announcements to get out from under the trees because the lightning will stike there. They said that several times but there were still several people who didn't listen.

We decided to get ourselves chocolate covered strawberries and go back to the car. On the way out they made the announcement that the festival was closing and for everyone to leave. The rain had let up so we thought that was kind of odd. They weren't very nice about it either. It was pretty much like "Get out!!" on the PA system.

People were still coming to the festival so we kept telling them that they had closed down so they wouldn't waste their time. The mass exit made traffic a nightmare. When we got home we found out that when we heard the loud clap of thunder it was when a bolt of lightning struck a tree. The ambulance was for a father and his two children who were under the tree when it struck. The news tonight said their condition was unknown. I really hope they are okay. I think that would traumatize me enough to never want another strawberry in my life and how sad would that be?

Blog Stalking

So here's a strange story.

Remember my mentioning that there was a girl in Texas whose blog I read regularly? Well, today I decided to finally come out as her official stalker, which was warmly received by her, being that she is somewhat of a blog stalker herself.

I suppose that I shouldn't really call her a "girl" since she's only a year younger than I am and we all know that I'm no spring chicken.

Anyway...

Courtney introduced me to the band "Stars" whom I LOVE and she introduced me to found.com and she also got me started on my fabulous new jewelry making hobby... all without knowing that she had even done so!

AND...

remember me mentioning that I REALLY wanted a skeleton key tattoo and that I had found the style of what I wanted on a MySpace photo? I searched and searched (for hours!) for the picture (because I didn't bookmark it!) and some of you were nice enough to harrass your friends into searching the profiles of their friends to find the elusive photo for me... well, the photo I had seen wasn't on a MySpace profile at all... it was on Courtney's Flickr account (oops!)

How serendipitous!

Go Ninja, Go!

Last night at the Vanilla Ice concert I think I might have caught some horrifying evidence of celebrity stalking on camera that I should turn over to police...

It seems that there was a very scary drag queen with hideous red fingernails that was trying to attack Vanilla Ice while he was performing! What's even more frightening was that I must have been standing right next to "her" when this was happening! As you can see by my after-concert photo-op below that Vanilla Ice remained unscathed... Lucky for him, since those fingernails look like they could really wound someone!

By the way, let me just mention that this was the most bizarre concert that I have ever been to... and I have been to A LOT of concerts.

First of all, it was in Franklin, Ohio. Never heard of it? Well, there's a reason for that! There's not much to see or do in Franklin. Even more bizarre than the concert being in Franklin, was that the concert was at a bowling alley. Wait! It gets better! The bowling alley is pretty nice as far as bowling alley's go. I had never been there before so I was assuming that the show was going to be in some part of the bar or something. I was sadly mistaken. We followed the crowd outside and as we stood on the deck I looked around in disbelief. There was a sea of sand before my eyes and no ocean in sight. It was a sand volleyball court. Everyone in the crowd had to stand in sand. Apparently Justin knew about all of this but failed to mention it to me. Luckily I wasn't wearing stiletto's or anything!

We walked down the steps and I felt like I couldn't even think because I was still trying to absorb that we had to stand in sand during the concert. This wasn't a small volleyball court, either. It was actually about 3 or 4 full size courts in all. There were chairs set up toward the back and there was a huge open area in front of the stage for the sand/mosh pit I am assuming. We finally found a piece of a wall to lean against while waiting for the show to start.

The opening band was pretty good as far as cover bands go. They finished their second set with "More Human Than Human" by Rob Zombie, which I really enjoyed. The best part of the whole concert was the people watching. It was bountiful! It was a much older crowd than I had expected. I enjoyed watching all of the woman in cocktail dresses and spiked heels struggle and stumble across the sand.

It was a boring and horribly long wait after the opening band until Vanilla Ice came on. I think that they were having technical difficulties or something. When he finally came on it was already 11pm. I wanted to get some pictures so I left the safety of our wall and walked to the front of the stage. It was then that it was confirmed how stupid and obnoxious drunk people are. I know that I was like that once and I wholeheartedly apologize to the world.

My observations about Vanilla Ice's performance are:

1. He sings with a really harsh Muppet-like voice. I am not sure which Muppet it is, really. I want to say the Cookie Monster, but more like the Cookie Monster after having chewed glass.

2. Vanilla Ice really like to spray water from bottles on the audience. He did this with at least 10 water bottles. He would shake it all over everyone and then throw the bottle into the audience. I'm not sure what that is all about.

3. He likes to say "Holy Shit" after every song. It's like Vanilla punctuation.

4. He must like the marijuana since it is the subject of all of his songs.

5. He's faithful and that is endearing. Justin witnessed a girl putting her hand on Vanilla Ice's crotch and he said "I'm not like that" on the mic to her. I heard that part but sadly missed the crotch grabbing.

In the middle of his performance he played "Ice Ice Baby" and invited the hoochie mama's onstage with him. First it was a couple, then it was to the point where it was like playing "Where's Waldo". I kept looking at Justin and saying "where is he??" So, there are all of the bimbo's onstage and we can't even see him and the really bad thing is that the bimbo's were there until the end of the show. At one point I looked at Justin and said again "where is he" and Justin said "he left the stage... the show is over!" I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent person, but I never heard the music stop and I never heard him say an official goodbye to the crowd. It was just weird how the show ended. The girls were still on the stage dancing and I just assumed that he was lost up there... Waldo style.

We decided to wait for our photo-op and the crowd slowly started disappearing. The sand pit was a disgusting mess. Justin asked a couple of people where Vanilla Ice would be coming out and they pointed to the VIP area. There were staff members guarding the VIP entrances so we had to come up with a plan to meet Vanilla Ice. We were talking to some people across the wall, who were sitting in the VIP section and one guy told us that we should just go up there since half the people up there didn't have VIP bracelets on. We decided to go to the guard and ask to be let in. He told Justin no and that only VIP members could go in. Well, right afterward, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, he let several hoochie's in! I could not believe that he did that right in front of us!

I asked the guard how their red bracelets were different than OUR red bracelets and he said that they were with someone in the VIP section. Justin told him we were with them too! Well, that didn't work so I said "So, we have to be "with" someone in the VIP section to get in??" and the guard said "If you are with someone I will let you in" Well, at this point I wanted to kick him. I walked back to the VIP table that we were talking to before and told them our situation and the guy said "Tell him that you are with me! I will wave at him" I asked for his name and he said "Mike Mills" I walked back to the guard and said "We are with the Mills party back there in VIP" and I looked over and Mike was standing up and waving. The guard said "Now that wasn't so hard, now was it?" What a prick.

The "line" to meet Vanilla Ice was VERY disorganized. I just wanted to get in and get out. People are so obnoxious when they get around celebrities. I just don't understand it. We got our pictures and Justin bonded with his ninja buddy, which is good (brotha!)

On the way out we had to walk past the prick of a guard and I tried to not make eye contact with him. When we passed him he said "sorry" and I kept walking. He yelled at me "you're not going to accept my apology?" Give me a break. What an ass. I just gave him one of my looks of death. I was perfectly satisfied since I got the photo I wanted and I left knowing that he was going to have to get over what he deemed a high-profile security position and had to clean the nasty pit that resembled a volleyball court. I secretly hoped that he accidentally touched some DNA while cleaning.

Word to your Motha!

Bascarts

Today I went to the crackhead Kroger on Wayne Avenue. There are actually a couple of crackhead Kroger stores but this, I believe, is the true crackhead Kroger. When I was pulling out of the parking lot I saw a sign that totally perplexed me, so I thought I would share it with you.



Can someone please explain what the hell a "bascart" is? Is this some weird Ohio thing that I don't know about yet? I worked in the grocery store business for 7 (very long!) years and have never heard of bascarts! We called them "buggies" where I lived. I know that's probably a strange southern term that mid-westerners will laugh at, but it is what it is. I usually called them "carts" but will occasionally slip with the "buggy" term.

I am assuming that bascarts are somewhat of a hybrid of carts and baskets but remember... this is the crackhead Kroger and there is no way that there will be something as sophisticated as a hybrid ANYTHING happening here! The carts in this particular Kroger look like any ordinary grocery store cart... just a little more worn. I'm almost afraid to put groceries in them, which is why I only stop there for small things like bread so I won't be forced into using the carts... er, bascarts.

I wonder who actually ordered the sign? Did the makers of the sign question what the hell a "bascart" is, like I did? I've never noticed these signs at the other Kroger stores.

Where is my brilliant linguistics student when I need him? (sigh!)

Schizophrenic Lawn Mowing

Yesterday when I came home from work and errands, I noticed that my neighbor decided to mow the lawn in a very schizophrenic way. There are large clumps of grass here and there and I was trying to decide if he was attempting to make a statement with mowing art. I thought maybe he would finish the job today, but no such luck. I'm just happy that he mowed half of my yard!

Today when I arrived home I walked across my busy street while attempting to not get killed by the Xenia Avenue crackheads. When I stepped on the sidewalk I actually gasped! My bar of soap was no longer safe on my stairs!! My bar of soap was now on the main sidewalk VERY close to the street. I almost picked up the soap and moved it back to it's former residence but thought that I might be messing with the intended journey of the soap.

I didn't notice the soap on the sidewalk yesterday so I think this may have happened today. I wonder if the mail carrier was in a bad mood and just kicked it? I wonder if it happened yesterday during the schizophrenic lawn mowing? Perhaps I will run to the sidewalk when it gets dark and return the soap to it's original place?

How can you just mess with someone's soap like that?!

Notice the schizophrenic mowing technique on the right side of the lawn!

All Season Soap

Several months ago I discovered a bar of soap laying on the stairs leading to my front porch. I thought it was really strange because I didn't put it there and it was actually quite close to my porch. The person that put the soap there was in close proximity to my front door and that's kind of creepy. What is more creepy is that they had a bar of soap with them.

I have thought a lot about this bar of soap and I have wondered about the scenario which resulted in the leaving of the soap on my step. For instance, where is the packaging? Why was the person (if it was a person!) carrying a bar of soap that wasn't in the package? This soap has been on my step for months! I noticed it before winter. When it snowed I was shoveling the front steps and realized that I had shoveled the soap into my yard. I didn't really see it when I did that... I just knew it was on the step before the snowfall and with one quick shovel it was gone!

So, the soap has survived sunshine, rainstorms, blizzards and miraculously, the mail carrier hasn't killed themselves tripping on it! After the snow melted the soap re-appeared on my steps but a little further down. I know that it isn't my soap because I use Dr. Bronner's peppermint bar soap. I think this soap might be of the Caress or Tone brand. It's lost a lot of it's color but has nicely maintained it's shape throughout the seasons.

The soap couldn't have been accidentally tossed from the garbage truck because the garbage is actually in our back alley. My street does have a lot of foot traffic with all the crackheads wandering around, but how many crackheads have soap with them? Also, my house sits up on a hill pretty far from the street and the probability of someone just tossing the soap onto my steps is slim.

I have thought about when I get my lawn mowed and think I might have to tell whomever does it to leave the soap alone. I am not sure what is stranger... the mysterious soap on my step or the fact that I am blogging about it.


The Mystery Soap!