Obamania

I left Middletown around 10am on Saturday January 17th to head to the Inauguration. My intention was to leave in the wee hours ofthe morning but that was wishful thinking. I had not finished packing and the cold made it much harder to carry things out to the car. I kept a check on the weather for my route and things seemed to be looking good for the trip. I wanted to geocache on the way to get more states so I made sure my Palm and GPSr were loaded with cache's.

In all, the trip to D.C. was pretty boring and uneventful. My road trips are usually from Ohio to St. Louis or Ohio to Charleston, which is the same old boring scenery. I had never driven this route before so I at least got to see some new landscape, which was nice for a change. I decided to stop in Pennsylvania to do a cache and the first one I stopped at was at this church on a very high hill. I drove past it at first thinking there might be an access road behind it but the road I was on was also a steep (and winding!) hill. It had just snowed so this did not please me. I went about a mile up the hill and kept looking for a place to turn around. Once I did that I slowly made my way down the hill again. I checked out the hill to the church and it had not been plowed and no cars had been up there since the snow. Even with 4-wheel drive I didn't want to attempt it so I got back on the interstate.

I needed gas so I stopped a couple of exits up and refueled. I checked the GPSr and there was a cache within half a mile. It turns out that it was at the local fairgrounds... a very small fairground! When I got within 20 feet of the cache I pulled over and realized that it was up a little hill and I was wearing clogs. I went to the back of my Jeep and pulled on some other shoes and carefully walked sideways up the snow-covered hill. I just knew I was going to fall on my ass. I got to the cache site and tried to grab it but the case was actually frozen to the tree it was resting on so I had to jab it with a stick to get it free. After grabbing a Travel Bug and signing the log I closed the cache and put it back for the next person. I looked at the hill I had to walk down and tried to figure out how, exactly, I was going to make it down to the bottom and not landing on my butt. I started by taking teeny tiny baby steps and soon, due to a fear of falling and my own momentum, I was soon running (not by choice!) down the hill. I really thought I was going to fall, but thankfully did not!

After this event I wasn't feeling the desire to do another cache... it was so damn cold! On the drive to D.C. Elizabeth called me to give me some bad news. Apparently the guy who lives in the condo above her had a pipe bust and the water was now coming into her condo ceiling and she had no water. All I could imagine was staying at her house for several days without showering and then having to drive home like that. Yuck. I told her that it is what it is and we will just have to cope! I arrived at her house around 8pm and after chatting for a bit we went to a wing place around the corner for some wine and food. I was exhausted and knew that the next couple of days were going to be non-stop so I went to bed as soon as we got home.

The next day was the "We Are One" concert, which started at 2pm. When I woke up Elizabeth’s friend was over and he had somehow found a way to turn the water on – Yay! I was glad to know that I didn’t have to stink the next three days! I made the mistake of sitting around with Elizabeth chatting more so I got a very late start. After driving to the Metro and the long ride in I didn't get there until 2:20pm. The crowd was unbelievable! Even with the cold and miserable weather, there were so many people there. I knew that there was probably no chance in hell of getting close to the Lincoln Memorial so I just walked around, listened to the music and took pictures. Whenever I heard someone I liked start singing or speaking I would just go to the nearest JumboTron to watch. I met several people, including a family from South Carolina. The energy of the crowd was really indescribable. I don't think that I have ever been in a place with that many happy people in my entire life. It was great! Throughout the day the only negativity I saw were the Bible Beating protesters who think Obama is the Anti-Christ. Needless to say, they didn’t really have anyone stay and listen to their message.

On the ride back on the Metro I realized that I had not eaten the entire day and I was starving and very tired. When I got to the car I called Elizabeth and told her that I was on my way home. She asked if I wanted to stop by her friend’s house and initially I said that I was too tired. She said they had made food and then I realized that I had no key to Elizabeth’s house so if I went home she would have to also. The thought of food after not eating all day sounded wonderful so I said I would come. Three of her friends were there, including the guy I met that morning who turned on the water. Also there were his wife and one of Elizabeth’s boyfriends. She had made some sort of beef dish, which I would never have eaten normally (but I was starving, so I did!) and tomato basil soup. We chatted for a while and I found the two guys to be quite nice and very engaging. Her girlfriend kept mentioning serial killers no matter what subject we were talking about. I think she thought she sounded cute but really, I found it annoying. I told Elizabeth that I was tired so she gave me the key and I headed home. I had another long day ahead of me.

Elizabeth had to work on Monday so when I woke up she was gone for the day. I had to be at Congressman Boehner’s office at Noon to pick up my Inauguration tickets. I got on the Metro around 11:15am and headed to the Capitol. I got to the Capitol South Metro station at 11:45 and to the Longworth building at 11:50. I stopped across the street to assess the situation. There were hundreds of people waiting in line! I finally found the end of the line and learned that it went up the street, down another street and back around the block to the door. Why on Earth did I think this would be a quick in and out?? I quickly made “friends” with the girls standing around me who provided comic relief for the next THREE HOURS and 10 minutes! About an hour into standing in line someone behind us magically had Subway sandwiches… how did they get those? I felt like tackling them, I was so hungry. My original plan was to QUICKLY get my tickets, get something to eat and then head to the National Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian. Yeah, this was not exactly how I had planned the day!

While standing in line we saw Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank. He was standing outside of the Cannon House across the street taking photos with some people. That was pretty much the highlight of the three hours. Every once in a while a representative from a Congresspersons office would come outside and yell the name to see if anyone was from their constituency. Sadly, no one from Boehner’s office came outside. The girls I was standing in line with lucked out and someone from their Congresswoman’s office came outside so they didn’t have to wait as long as I did… those bitches. The problem was really getting through security. Some people in line must have just come from the airport because they actually had luggage with them. I mean, that really must have slowed down the security process! Around 3 o’clock I finally made my way into the building and wandered around for several minutes before finding a floor map. I took the elevator to the basement and found Boehner’s office and gave them my name. The girl handed me a manila envelope and I was on my way. I stopped just outside the office to text Rob to tell him that I had the tickets. When I did that a couple of girls standing outside the office asked if I would take their picture in front of the office. Turns out they were from Middletown also. We took each other picture and I made a pit stop at the bathroom. On my way out I got a text message from Rob asking what section we were in. I had totally forgotten to look! We were in Silver, which was the farthest ticketed section from the Capitol. I was kind of bummed, but still glad to even have a highly coveted ticket at all!

I left the Longworth building clutching my envelope. It tried to lick it to seal it because the tickets could easily fall out, but it was either too cold or my saliva is defective and the glue would not take. I had nowhere to put them so I clutched them for dear life all the while imaging that someone was going to run up beside me and snatch them (if Elizabeth’s friend was there she would probably say a serial killer would get them!) Before heading to the National Gallery of Art, I walked over to the Capitol to take some photos of the Inaugural set up. There were thousands of people walking around. After checking things out I walked down the National Mall toward the Smithsonian and was surprised at the lack of vendors. My Mother wanted me to get some buttons and stuff for my nieces but there weren’t many to be found and the ones that were around had such tacky stuff.

Since it was already past three I didn’t have much time to spend at the museum so I did the power tour of the highlights. It has been several years since I was there, but I wasn’t at all impressed with their Collection. There wasn’t one painting that I stood in awe of. Also, I found it strange that they had artists separated into different rooms. One room was all Monet’s, another was all Cezanne and another was Van Gogh and so on. I have never encountered anything like it. It was very odd. In my travels, it is also the first art museum that allowed flash photography. I even asked a docent about it and he confirmed that it was allowed. He followed up by saying “I hope they know what they are doing!” Apparently, they don’t! Before heading out I stopped at the gift shop (always my favorite part of the museum) and bought a couple of postcards and a magnet. My ulterior motive was to actually get a bag so I could put the tickets in something protective so the “serial killers” would not get them!

I left the Gallery and headed home because I had to pick up Rob at Dulles airport at 8:25pm. I headed for the nearest Metro, which was at the Archives. I finally found a couple of vendors and bought some non-tacky buttons from my nieces and nephew. I really should have taken some photos of the stuff they were selling because when I tell you the stuff was tacky, I’m not exaggerating! The funniest thing I heard from a vendor while I was there was from a guy who had printed some calendars on him home computer, which he then laminated. I overheard him telling some woman “… these are laminated, you’ll never get fingerprints on it!” For some reason that really amused me! I got back to Elizabeth’s and hung out for a bit. Her “serial killer” friend was there, also. I kept telling Elizabeth that we needed to leave but she said that I didn’t know how things worked there and that we really needed to wait. All I knew was that Rob was supposed to land at 8:36 according to JetBlue online and it was now 8:25. I told her I was leaving and asked her if she was coming and she said no so I left without her. Thank God for the GPS!! I bought Justin a TomTom for Christmas and used it for the trip and really, that damn thing is fabulous! I must get one for myself! It really navigated me all around that city without once having to write down or print directions! I’m sold! I had no idea how to get to Dulles but the Jane (my TomTom navigating profile) took me right there! Awesome. I quickly picked up Rob and headed back to Elizabeth’s. We were both hungry so we called her and asked her if she was interested in getting a bite. We ended up going back to her condo and then walked to this little Indian place. The food was good but I found it odd that they didn’t have a couple of the most common Indian dishes. We ended up closing the place and then walked a back to her place.

Knowing that we had to get up at the God-awful early hour of 4 o’clock Rob and I headed for bed. When my alarm went off I felt as if I had just fallen asleep. I practically had! I got ready, packed a few granola bars and cookies in my purse and headed out. It was 5:15am and I was not feeling it. We headed down the interstate and got within three miles of the city and there was a police blockade on the highway. The officer asked where we were going and I said to Rosslyn and headed to the Inauguration. He said we needed to exit the interstate. That’s fine and everything, but there was no detour, no police telling us how to get where we were going… just and exit. Luckily we had GPS Jane who gave us an alternate route!! We drove the back roads to Rosslyn where Elizabeth’s office is. Our plan was to park in her garage and then Metro to the city. The TomTom took us to her office but Elizabeth failed to tell us which garage was hers! We tried calling her many times and she never answered so we ended paying $14 to park. Oh well!

The Metro was right next to the garage so we hopped on very slowly traveled into D.C. The Metro was packed with people and there was no room for personal space. There was a couple of people that I met that had purple tickets, which were one section ahead of us and I tried to talk them into trading their tickets for ours but they weren’t having it. I even told them it was my 40^th birthday… They told me Happy Birthday, but still no luck! We had planned to get off at Capitol South Metro station and during the ride they would intermittently close stations due to crowding on the platforms. We were able to get off at our station and the crowd was massive. When we got to the top of the escalator I lost sight of Rob. We both went to the open area and just waited until we spotted one another… brilliant minds think alike!

At the Metro there were police officers telling people which way to go according to their ticket colors. We were in a crowd of thousands of people and had to have blind faith that they all knew where they were going. We shuffled through the streets and when the crowd swayed so did we. We were like cattle and the worst part was that we had no clue where we were going. There were no police telling us which way to go, there were no police to control crowd surges! The only police officers I saw were safe inside the barriers when they should have been where the crowds were to help all of us navigate. There was no way to see in front of you because all you saw were people. We eventually turned a corner and saw the sign for the silver gate and I felt a little relief.

We got to a point at the silver gate where an officer told us he was going to let us through and not to push and shove. This was the only time I saw anyone that offered any kind of assistance (not that it really helped us!) We then went to a point at the “gate” where we proceeded to stand for well over and hour. Every once in a while we would move up two steps or so and that’s it. There were all kinds of speculation about why we weren’t moving and why people to the right of us were walking back. Someone said that they were being turned away because they didn’t have tickets. We found this to be amusing because there is no way they could know this information… they were in the same predicament that we were in with no information! I was getting very irritated because the women in back of me kept leaning on me which made me have to lean forward and it started to wear on my back after a while. I bitched to Rob about being molested and joked that I thought I was pregnant… I finally turned around and told the lady that I couldn’t move up anymore and to stop pushing on me. It didn’t work.

After being in the crowd-to-nowhere we overheard someone say that the silver ticket gate was actually to the left. Rob and I made an executive decision to break off from this crowd and head that direction. Within 15 minutes we were inside the silver gate! We got to the security area and I had to give them my purse to search. We had to open our jackets and get frisked and then they sent us on our way! They didn’t even check tickets!! We proceeded to walk around the area to find the perfect spot to watch the festivities. We initially tried to enter the crowd from the front but thought better of it and walked to the side and went in sideways until we had a perfect view of the Capitol and of the JumboTron. It was about 9:30am.

Rob and I had both prepared for the cold… or so we thought. We were both wearing long underwear, two pair of socks… multiple layers of everything and hand warmers – but it wasn’t enough. I really do believe it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. Before the Inauguration ceremony it was hard because we had to entertain ourselves. Because we weren’t preoccupied it was hard to not think about how cold it was. I had been walking around non-stop for two days prior so my body was also aching. AND I was officially an old lady that day being 40 years old! Thankfully the JumboTron was showing pre-Inaugural action of the motorcade and the entrance of all the politicians. The crowd would erupt with cheers when they showed Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama on the screen. We were watching the celebrities arrive and I wondered where Oprah was. I knew she wouldn’t be too far behind and then they finally showed her. I kept looking for Bill and Hillary and was excited when they arrived. When the music started I knew we didn’t have too much longer to go. You could definitely feel the excitement in the crowd begin to swell.

After announcing Congressman and Senators they started on the former Presidents. We could see them walking down the hall of the Capitol on the JumboTron. When they announced President Bush I think everyone in our area, besides Rob and I, started booing. We just looked at each other. I was pretty surprised because I thought of this crowd as a little more enlightened and insightful… a crowd that was supposed to be filled with hope and an attitude for change. We all know Bush was a shitty President. I mean really, give him some respect as our President for the next 45 minutes and then we never have to worry about his ass being in office again!

Needless to say when they announced Bill and Hillary the crowd went nuts. They are rock stars. Enough said.

On a side note, why on Earth was the whole Bush clan wearing purple scarves? It IS a cult, isn’t it?!

After everyone of importance was seated we could see Obama coming down the hall. I think the crowd didn’t know whether to cheer or be quiet. All I could think about was what could possibly be going through his mind at that exact moment. What did he think when he walked out that door and saw all of us crazy people standing on the Mall in support of him? I can’t even imagine being in that position (and you all would be in trouble if I were!)

Once the ceremony started I was so into watching this historic event happen right in front of me that I barely noticed how cold it was! During the ceremony I didn’t really pay attention to Pastor Rick Warren, because he’s a complete tool. I absolutely loved hearing Yo-Yo Ma and company perform and I loved the piece they played. I thought Aretha Franklin was um, interesting… Everything else happened pretty quickly and the next thing I knew Obama was our President! When Obama said, “So help me God” and the Chief Justice said “Congratulations, Mr. President!” The crowd went nuts! Being the patriotic baby that I am I was in tears, which I had warned Rob about and just so excited! The people were hugging, crying, jumping up and down and I really wish I could have bottled that moment in time or somehow captured that emotion to keep forever. It was truly amazing.

By the time poet Elizabeth Alexander started reading her piece many people in the crowd started heading out. I turned to Rob and said, “I guess people don’t like poetry!” We waited until the whole show was over and the band started playing. Many people in the crowd were dancing which was awesome to watch. We walked up toward the Capitol and then decided we wanted something to eat. We tried to get out of the Mall on the opposite side that we came in but there were barriers everywhere! You would walk three blocks one way and be blocked in. Then, you would turn and walk three blocks the other way and it would be blocked again. We didn’t have a map of the areas that weren’t blocked so we really felt trapped. I kept telling Rob that I felt like a rat in a cage. We actually saw one woman having a complete meltdown because she was to tired of walking aimlessly and was cold and tired. It was awful. There were no food vendors that we saw and we were so cold and tired. After walking with no luck or chance of escape we went inside the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It was like a refugee camp in there! Hundreds of people were sitting on the floor to rest and keep warm. Rob and I found a spot under the Lockheed U-2 and planted ourselves for the next hour or so. Rob was on the floor and I was laying on the platform next to the space man. The only thing that could have been better was if we had food and if I knew how to turn off the U-2 Television infomercial, which I was beginning to memorize after hearing it so many times!

After warming up we headed out to the Mall again. We found a hot dog vendor and waited in line for a very long time while listening to some teenagers bitch. The wind was blowing and we were just frozen to the bone. When we finally got to the beginning of the line we both got one hot dog (almost $4 each!) and decided against drinks. There was no way I wanted anything with ice in it!! Rob grabbed some mustard and asked me if I wanted some. I told him that it was too cold to take my gloves off and I was going to eat my hot dog so fast that I probably wouldn’t even taste it! And… that’s exactly what happened!

We decided to make an attempt at escaping the Mall area yet again. We both knew that the Metros were going to be packed. We thought about walking to Rosslyn, which was about 2 miles away, but I wasn’t quite sure how to get there and I was so tired that I didn’t want to walk unnecessarily. We decided to head to the L’enfant Plaza Metro area. There were thousands of people waiting in line for the Metro so we kept on walking. We saw a Starbucks and got in that line. I told Rob that if I got to use the restroom AND have a coffee I would probably have a private moment. The line at Starbucks had about 30 people in it and I wasn’t feeling it. We walked in one door and out the other into the L’enfant Plaza Holiday Inn lobby. I attempted to use the women’s restroom but there were way too many people in it so we went back to the lobby. Luckily we found two empty seats, which served as our home for the next couple of hours!

I took a nap in the Holiday Inn lobby and woke up around 5:30. It was getting dark outside. I was finally able to use the restroom! We decided to head back to the Metro and was able to get on without much trouble. We made it as far as the Foggy Bottom stop and there were so many people on the train that the doors wouldn’t close. The driver warned us that if the doors would not close he would evacuate the train and shut it down. He made four more attempts and that’s exactly what he did! We all had to get off the train and the platform was already filled with people waiting for the next train.

Most of the people there were waiting for the Orange line so I told Rob we should take the Blue line. We had to make our way to the front and some girl turned around and said “Please don’t push me into the train!” Damn! She foiled my plan!! That’s exactly what I wanted to do! Ugh! When the blue train came we got on and only had one more stop until freedom from the hell that was D.C.! I was never so happy to see my car in my entire life! We had no problem getting home from there, which was nice.

When we arrived at Elizabeth’s house we found that she made chicken divan, which was perfect comfort food after a very long and cold winter day! After a couple of glasses of wine and conversation we went to bed. Rob had to be at the airport at 6am!

We woke up bright and early once again and made our way to Dulles. I decided to leave after dropping Rob off so I could get home at a decent hour. At the beginning of the trip I was completely exhausted and all I wanted to do was nap. I promised myself that at the first rest area I would do just that! The first one was Maryland, but it was snowing and I didn’t want to get caught in it so I had to wait until Pennsylvania. I ended up sleeping from 10am to Noon! I’m so glad I brought a blanket and pillow! Being so tired on the way back I had no intention of doing any geocaching!! I ended up getting home around 5pm. I was never so happy to see my bed in my entire life!

On election night in November I said that if Obama defeated McCain I wanted to attend the Inauguration and that I couldn’t imagine spending my 40^th birthday anywhere else in the world! Even with how tired I was, the extreme cold I experienced and the still-there body aches, I am in awe and feel so lucky to be able to say that I was there to witness history in the making. I am especially thrilled to have experienced it with Rob, who is such an amazing friend. There’s simply no way to put into words how incredible it was!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I woke up today feeling horrible. I called in to work with the intention of going to the doctor because being sick for three weeks can't be good. I tried calling the doctors office for two hours. I thought maybe they were closed on Tuesdays, which would be weird, but there was no answering service. I finally gave up and drove to the office. They had a waiting room full of patients so they were definitely open. I told the receptionist that I had called for hours and she said "Hmmm. That's strange!" Yes, I agree.. and it's also bad that a patient has to drive in the rain when they are not feeling well to make an appointment.

Anyway...

She gave me an appointment with my doctor for 2:45 today. In the meantime I did a couple things around the house and tried to keep warm. I saw that the phone message light was blinking and I scrolled through the caller ID and saw that it said that "US Capital (202)226-9928" called yesterday at 4:40pm. That was right after I made my phone calls to the Senators and Congressman!! I listened to the messages and one from Congressman Boehner's office. A girl named Erin telling me to call her back! I called immediately and asked for Erin. My throat was sore and it hurts to talk, but I knew this was a conversation I wanted to have!

When Erin got on the phone she asked for my information. I gave her my address, phone number, email address and the whole time all I wanted to do was ask if she had tickets! She said "How many tickets do you need?" and I said "Two" and she said "I can do that for you" and I said "What??" and followed up with "You have tickets??" and she said "Yes" and I said "And you're going to give me two??" and she laughed and said "Yes" and I actually started to cry! I have tried everything I know to get tickets to this thing!! She said that she would follow up with a confirmation email and I told her that she made my year!! I think she thought I was a bit nutty because I was so excited - sick and all!

For the next fifteen minutes I kept refreshing my email like someone with an OCD! I didn't want to tell anyone until I at least had some sort of confirmation in hand! I finally received it about 30 minutes later. Behold the glory!:

----- Original Message -----
From: Satzger, Erin
To: pam513@cinci.rr.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 1:12 PM
Subject: Inauguration 2009

Dear Pamela,
I am pleased to inform you that we were able to accommodate your ticket request to attend the inauguration of our nation's 44th President, Barack Obama on January 20th at noon.

Tickets to the Inauguration Ceremony will not be distributed to Congressional Offices prior to Monday, January 19th. Therefore, you must pick up your tickets in person from my Washington DC office on Monday, January 19th between 12pm and 5pm, or we will also be opening the office on Tuesday, January 20th at 7:00 am, Inauguration Day. Given expected crowds, I strongly encourage you to pick up your tickets at your earliest possible convenience. Please note, in order to receive your tickets you must present a valid photo ID.

The 8th Congressional District Washington office is located at 1011 Longworth, on the ground floor, next to the C and New Jersey Streets, SE, entrance to the Longworth House Office Building (Longworth). The office is easiest to reach using the DC Metro System (commuter subway), at the Capitol South stop on the blue/orange lines. If you enter through the main entrance of Longworth on Independence Avenue, once you pass security screening turn left and go down one flight of stairs. On the ground level, turn to the right and proceed to the end of the corridor. My office is the second to last one the left.

Additionally, information regarding inauguration security measures and ceremony entrances has been enclosed.

Should you for any reason be unable to make the trip to Washington, please contact our office as soon as possible so my office can redistribute your tickets to constituents on a waiting list. I encourage you to keep up with Inaugural Day updates by using the official committee's website at http://inaugural.senate.gov/. If you have any further questions or problems, please contact Erin Satzger in my Washington, D.C., office at (202) 225-6205. Sincerely,John A. Boehner Erin M. SatzgerStaff AssistantRepresentative John Boehner (OH-08)(202) 225-6205

Now I'm just praying for no snow or bad weather that week!!!

The Golden Ticket

I am SO TIRED of being sick. Justin came down with pneumonia last month so I fumigated the entire house with Lysol and took some natural immune boosting pills, but it was no use. I got sick over the holidays and have been sick ever since. Right now I have this horrible post-nasal drip...constant coughing, scratchy throat and sinus pressure. It wakes me up every night which is a pain because I normally don't have trouble sleeping. I'm quite miserable, really.

On top of all of that I went to the doctor last month to attempt to get a grip on my diabetes. There have been changes in my body (besides losing 85 lbs. without trying!) that are scaring me and I don't want to end up dead from something that I could have had control over. I did some fasting labs and on my return visit the doctor wanted to put me on insulin and I said no way. I told her that I really wanted to attempt one last time to control it with oral meds and watching what I ate. For the last two weeks I have had nothing that has sugar in it. I went cold turkey and it has been hard as hell - especially over the holidays. We had "food day" at work and I can't even tell you how hard it was to not have sweets - especially chocolate! I didn't even go to the table to see what was there. I had nothing. Not even a cracker! I didn't even want to look at it because of the temptation.

Since going on my medicine again it has been a constant roller coaster. My body doesn't know what the hell is happening and there are days when I crash and feel horrible and days when I feel great. I can't wait until I finally reach that happy medium and the meds become regulated in my system. Last week I was at work and started feeling weird and shaky. I checked my blood sugar and it was 83. I'm sure that it hasn't been that low in years! It really should be between 90 and 110 so that was not good. I tried to convince my coworkers that it was okay for me to eat cake (it was someone's birthday) but they weren't having it and I knew I would feel guilty if I did so I just went and warmed up my lunch and had that. I told Diane that if I passed out to make sure they didn't send me to the hospital until after 4pm or else I wouldn't get paid for the holiday, which was the day after.

So, with being sick comes the irritability. If one more person at work mentions weather to me I'm going to go nuts. Everyone knows that I don't like snow. Everyone knows that it scares the crap out of me to drive in the snow. I listen to the weather, I watch the news so, YES! I know when it's going to snow!! When I'm at work and it starts snowing I get this stream of people that take joy in walking by my desk to report to me that they have seen a snowflake. It's so irritating. I get the little pats on the back with people saying "It'll be okay" like I'm mentally challenged. Yes, people actually do this. I always tell them that I'm not worried about my driving, I'm worried about all the assholes in Ohio that think they are invincible and drive like maniacs (namely, them!)

Sorry, just venting.

Speaking of snow (or hopefully lack of!)...

Weather and finances permitting, I'm attempting to go to Obama's Inauguration in D.C. I like to think of it more as Obama's Inauguration/Pam's 40th birthday celebration. Can you imagine a better place to spend your 40th birthday? After Obama's kick-ass landslide win, I contacted both Ohio Senators and also my local Congressman to put my name on the list for tickets. A couple of days later I received an email from Senator Voinavich saying that I might as well hang it up and that all the tickets were spoken for. A couple of days after that I received an email from Senator Brown saying that my name was put into a lottery and if my name was chosen they would contact me. They even sent out follow-up emails with updates. In the end I wasn't selected so I was pretty bummed. I never did hear from Congressman Boehner's office.

I've been reading up on the events of the inauguration and trying to figure out how I'm going to navigate my way through the city. I will probably drive to work with my friend Elizabeth and trek to the city from her office, which is 2 1/2 miles to the Capital. I'm pretty familiar with D.C. so I just need to figure out which Metro stations are going to be open to shorten my walk! They said that if you go you should choose between being at the Mall for the swearing in or on the parade route because the possibility of doing both will be slim.

Today, on the way home, I called both Senators offices and asked them what happens to the tickets that people don't pick up. The girl from Senator Voinavich's office said that they have a list of a couple thousand people and only a couple hundred tickets so there will be none left over (that's kind of sucky!) When I called Senator Brown's office the girl said that they have a strict follow up procedure to ensure that all people that are issued tickets come and pick them up. I didn't question it... why bother?!

I decided to call Congressman Boehner's office to find out what was happening there and the guy who answered the phone was the most helpful out of all of them and actually gave me a bit of hope! He said that all the tickets were spoken for but they have had an occasion where someone has to cancel plans and can't go. In that case there is a list of stand-by's so he put me on the list and said I should hear something within the next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I can't tell you how bad I want one of those damn tickets!

I feel like Charlie Bucket looking for the golden ticket! Thankfully I don't have to look through all those chocolate bars - I definitely would have been in trouble then... unless they were sugar free, of course!

Sick Moist Box

I had today off so I wanted to do something fun and productive. I recently signed up to be a volunteer for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. I was a volunteer for several years, but got tired of the bitchy and demanding people who requested photos of their loved ones so I took a break. I haven't received any requests since I've signed up so I went to Find A Grave.com to see if there were any requests there. I printed off a couple of request pages that I thought I could find and Justin and I set out for Hamilton.

At the first cemetery, St. Stephens, we didn't have much luck finding the graves that the person requested. We were in the right section and found some markers with the correct surname but the first names were not the ones she indicated she needed. After walking the section several times we decided the people did not have headstones and moved on to the next cemetery, which happened to be just down the street.

I had been wanting to come to Greenwood Cemetery for awhile because Ray Combs from Family Feud is buried there. I love a celebrity (no matter how small!) grave site! Unfortunately we didn't have the section number for him so we continued with our original mission and drove to section C. We walked around for over an hour and although we didn't find the grave (again!) I did find something that amused me.

There were actually a lot of "Sick" people there, but sadly not the "Eversole" person we were looking for. We did find a very close match and I took a photo and emailed it to the person requesting the picture in hopes that she got the birth year wrong.

I highly enjoy finding grave markers with unusual last names. This is one that I took at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton. It is, by far, my favorite! I love it so much I do believe that I have a photo of it during every season!

MOIST... Every time I see it I have to take a picture of it.

When we got home Justin decided that he was feeling pretty ambitious and decided to drag our fabulous BLACK Christmas tree out of the basement. He bought the tree last year when we decided that we would be cohabitating so this would be the first year of putting it together. I let him have a go at it while I went and watched the last DVD of "The L Word" (I don't even want to discuss the finale from last season - ugh!) Later on I was beckoned to come look at his masterpiece of a tree and it is quite lovely.

When he opened the humongous Rubbermaid box filled with the ornaments that would be adorning the tree we found this stuck to the lid:

As a public service announcement, Justin and I would like to remind everyone this holiday season... please do not put your small children (or pets in our case!) in Rubbermaid storage boxes!

Just sayin'!

Melissa

My friend Jackie, who lives in Charleston, emailed me today to tell me something that I have been waiting years to hear. She said that on the morning news they announced that the South Carolina Supreme Court had set the execution date for Joseph Gardner, the man who killed my friend Melissa back in 1992.

Melissa and I met while I was working at Piggly Wiggly in North Charleston. I was a bookkeeper and she was one of the cashiers. She worked there for a while and we would go shopping or out to dinner from time to time. She was engaged to a guy named John who was a jerk and they lived with his parents who were complete assholes. At one point, after a fight with her boyfriend, she lived with our friend Amanda and her family for a couple of months. Melissa ended up quitting The Pig and went to work at the tanning salon in the same shopping complex. It was convenient for her since it was just down the street from her house and she could walk to work.

One day I walked into work and my friend Sarah met me at the door before I could even clock in. I'll never forget our conversation. Sarah said "You know in the news they have been saying that they found that woman that was shot and no one knows who she is?" and I said "Yes" she said "Well... it's Melissa." I remember attempting to process what she just told me and then I walked out the door and went home. Thankfully I wasn't fired for leaving.

I had been following the story in the news. It was HUGE news in Charleston and soon would be all over the Country. All I could think about was how from time to time Melissa would come to work with a black eye or a bruise here and there thanks to her "loving" boyfriend. She would say that she "fell" off the motorcycle or something stupid like that but we never believed her.

I called the investigator handling the case because at this point I'm thinking the boyfriend went too far and the officer told me "we already have the suspects and we are looking for the gunman."

At work the next day and saw Harvey "Dusty" Poole, who did the fingerprinting for the North Charleston police department. He was in every piece of news footage I had seen coming out of a moblile home carrying a box. He knew Melissa from shopping at The Pig and we chatted for a bit about the case. I asked him what was in the box and he said it wasn't good, but since the case was still open he couldn't tell me.

The story was that Melissa had gotten into a fight with John (imagine that!) and was drunk and started walking home. A police officer picked her up and brought her to her house and left before she was actually in the house. Whenever we would go out we would always have to wait to until she was in the house because she wasn't allowed to have a key. I'm assuming that when she knocked on the door the boyfriends mother didn't let her in... something she liked to do since they didn't really get along. Melissa then started walking the short distance to the Piggly Wiggly shopping center and was in the wrong place at the the wrong time. She was picked up by Joseph Gardner and Matthew Mack and I believe one other person.

In the trial Mack and Gardner said that Melissa was prostituting herself for drugs, which I have a hard time believing since she had a problem with our friend Amanda dating a black man. I can't possibly imagine Melissa ever getting into a car in the middle of the night with three African Americans!

They took her to a trailer park in N. Charleston where they proceeded to spread the word that they had "captured a white woman" and if anyone wanted to take turns to come over... this is eventually why they were caught. They weren't exactly discreet about it all.

Soon the story was on CNN, Hard Copy, Montel... you name it. It was the same year of the Rodney King verdict so there was plenty of racial unrest in the community. People were so afraid that there would be protest and violence that they pretty much stifled any information that it was a racially motivated hate crime. It went from being National news to not news at all. It's amazing that this can happen when 8 people publicy state that they are sought revenge to teach white people a lesson "for 400 years of black oppression."

They caught Joseph Gardner a couple years after the murder in Philadephia and immediately brought him back to South Carolina for trial. I went to the trial as much as I could. The courthouse was an hour away and I was working days at the time. I remember sitting in back of Melissa's parents hearing testimony from Matthew Carl Mack about everything they did to her IN DETAIL. As a friend I was having a hard time listening to all of it and I can't possibly imagine what her parents were thinking. I introduced myself to Pat and Clare Mclauchlin one day just to let them know who I was and that I thought about Melissa often. I wasn't able to be there the day of the verdict but watched as they read it live on the news. Joseph Gardner had received the death penalty.

This December will the the 16th anniversary of Melissa's death. Over the years I have thought about her and what she had to endure that night in North Charleston. She wasn't my best friend and I hadn't known her for years, but for some reason what happened affected me deeply. Over the years, every once in a while I would Google her name or the name of Joseph Gardner to attempt to get information on his appeals from death row. I could never find any information besides horrible lies from white supremacist web pages so I contacted the Lieber Correctional Institute, home of South Carolina Death Row. Lieber directed me to The South Caroline Victims Assistance Program.

When I contacted S.C.V.A.P. I told them the situation and that I wanted information on Gardners appeal status. They took my information and put me on a notification list after obtaining approval from Melissa's parents. At the time Gardner had received another stay of execution and had a couple more appeals. I had no idea how long the process to and never imagined it would take so long!

Last month I called S.C.V.A.P. since I forgot to update my information when I moved to Middletown at the beginning of the year. The person told me that they had just mailed me a letter and it was returned for a bad address that same day and it was ironic that I happened to call that day. She told me that Gardner had lost his final appeal and that the case was now with the South Carolina Supreme Court. They would give the go ahead and a date would be set. She said that she expected the execution date to be sometime in late November.

So, today I get the email and wonder why they have not called me to let me know... then, by noon I received a phone call from S.C.V.A.P. telling me of the execution date. I asked Sandy Wofford if Melissa's paren't are going. She said that she had talked to Pat earlier and they are undecided. They apparently allow 3 family members to view the execution. Wow.

I was thinking today, if given the opportunity, would I go and watch. I remember when my father was dying and we decided to take him off life support we had the choice to stay in the room or leave. I chose to leave because I had no desire to witness the last breath of someone I loved so dearly. I knew that if I heard a strange sound or an odd breath it would haunt me forever.

Would it be the same with someone that you have absolutely no love for?

Gardner has the opportunity to pick between lethal injection or electrocution. Would seeing his body convulse and then go lifeless have any effect on me mentally? It's such an odd thing to think about when you prize life. The things that this person did to Melissa are heinous and unimaginable... but should I be happy to see him die? I'm not even sure what to think about it all. He had no mercy so I ask myself why I feel a tinge of guilt that his life is ending in a couple of weeks. I can't possibly imagine the feeling he must have had when his attorney told him the outcome of his final appeal and eventually the date that he was scheduled to die. What do you do in those final weeks? You would think that the weeks going into your execution and the fact that you are left there alone with only your thoughts would be torture enough.

Since getting the news today it's all I can think about. How do you come to terms with your own death? What must his family be thinking? How do they say goodbye? I've had to say goodbye to two people due to terminal illness. It's the most heart wrenching thing one could possibly have to do.. to say goodbye knowing you will never talk to that person or see that person again... then you have to walk away. How did I turn my back and walk away without totally collapsing?

This has been such a waste of two lives!

When I spoke to Sandy Wofford at S.C.V.A.P. I told her that I would like to extend the invitation to speak with Melissa's parents. She said that they are aware of me and are updated on my status as well. I told her to give them whatever information they wanted if they would like to be in touch. Hopefully they will take me up on my offer.

The last time I saw Melissa was at Trident Hospital (oddly enough where my Father died). Our friend Amanda had gotten into a car accident and I went to go see her. As I was walking toward the the hospital entrace I saw Melissa sitting on the bench. It was a happy moment because we hadn't seen one another in a while - she was all smiles... that is how I'd like to remember her.

Revision

Today in Freecycle news, it looks like "loverboy3027" had a bit of bad luck when trying to give away his "Church Puss" from last week. I noticed in today's email a revised ad for "church PEWS."

I love how "PEWS" is in all caps!

Sadly, it looks like no one informed him that he spelled "they" wrong!

----- Original Message -----
From: loverboy3027
To: FreecycleMiddletownOH@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 4:58 PM
Subject: OFFER: church PEWS

we got 6 12 foot long thay are in good shape

Freecycle Madness!

Every once in a while someone posts something on Freecycle that makes me laugh. Becky and I always joke around about the one woman that posted an ad that said "Wanted: Gift for husband"... that's all she wrote. Like she really didn't care what the gift was, just as long as she got one!

This gem was posted recently and made me laugh out loud:

***********************
----- Original Message -----

From: boxerluvr03

To: FreecycleMiddletownOH@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 10:15 PM

Subject: Wanted: Jesus things

want Jesus things 45044

***********************

"Jesus things"? What kind of "Jesus things"?? Do people have random, unused "Jesus things" laying around the house? I wonder if some nice folks contacted this person to give them some "Jesus things"? I'm tempted to email them to find out!

This is one that someone sent this afternoon. It came over while I was at work. I nearly spit the mouthful of water I had out when I read it!

***********************

----- Original Message -----

From: loverboy3027

To: FreecycleMiddletownOH@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 4:23 PM

Subject: offer: church puss

there are 7 or 8 of them thay are in good shape thay are 16 foot long

***********************

What the hell is a "church puss"?

At first I thought that someone was giving away a kitty that had been adopted by a local church but as I read the description the ad certainly wasn't for a stray cat... stray cats are usually not 16 feet long!

Did they mean church "pew"? How did they get "puss" confused with "pew"? Granted, the word "pew" is a funny word and quite honestly one of those words that you look at and question to yourself "is it really spelled that way?" One would think that if there was the slightest question there would be hesitation about posting it to a public forum for thousands to read.

Another point is that they can't spell "they" correctly. Why would I expect them to spell "pew" correctly? High expectations, I know!

Oddly enough this post was from a person named "loverboy3027". Hmmm. What's a person named "loverboy3027" doing with all those church pews?

Lastly was this post.I'm not even sure what to say about this...

***********************

----- Original Message -----

From: Jen

To: FreecycleMiddletownOH@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:26 AM

Subject: Wanted: Used LapTop

I know this is a long shot... but my daughter (who is 2 1/2) wants to be like mommy and daddy and get on the computer at night.... we have toddler games for her but we don't want her to mess up our computers (2 year old can be rough)... can anyone help.

**********************

This email just conjures up a vision of family bonding time, doesn't it?

I think this was probably posted by the young woman that Justin and I saw walking out of Wal Mart a couple of nights ago when it was around 30 degrees outside. The woman was conveniently wearing a warm jacket but the baby in her arms was dressed as if it were Summer. Justin and I just looked at each other in disbelief.

Why is that 2 1/2 year old child playing on the computer at night when Mommy and Daddy are playing on theirs? Shouldn't that child be in bed?

Where's the hot Super Nanny, Jo, when we need her?

Provisional Pam

Justin and I woke up extra early this morning to head to our designated polling place. I have never voted in Ohio before and I was curious about how different it would be from my voting experiences in South Carolina and Illinois. Our polling place was not in a very convenient location. It was at some hall in some strange little neighborhood a couple of miles away. The parking lot wasn't full so things were looking good.

We walked into the hall and there were only two people in front of us. In front of them were four women discussing the fact that the person's address was different than the address listed in the voters registration book and there seemed to be a lot of confusion about it. I knew at that point that I was in trouble since I still have an Illinois drivers license. Just in cast I had brought my pay stub with my current address for verification. I was hoping there would not be a problem but I was wrong!

When it was my turn I handed the lady my license and she called over to another lady who was walking around frantically. The frantic lady took my license. I told her that I had a my paycheck stub with my current address on it. She took my paycheck and asked if it was recent and proceeded to open it. I grabbed it back from her because my financial information is none of her business and told her the stub was dated 10/10/08. One of the ladies found me in her book but the other ladies said I was not listed in their book. Apparently their book was more important because it had each voters signature.

The frantic lady said that because I was not in the book I would have to fill out a provisional ballot and to follow her. I started asking why, if I registered the same time my fiance did, was I not in the book. He was in it... why not me? I asked why I had to fill out a provisional ballot and the frantic lady looked at me and said "Don't question it!"

Um... what? All I could think about was "Wasn't it Ohio that fucked up part of the election in 2004?"

The frantic lady handed me two very long ballots and two envelopes and told me to go sit at a table and fill out the ballot. I was pissed! Justin was already in the process of doing his electronic ballot. When he was done he came over to see what I was up to and to say goodbye since he had to take off for work. I proceeded to take my anger regarding the disorganization out on all those little circles I had to color in! I don't think there has ever been a better filled in ballot in the State of Ohio!

When I was done with my ballot I went back up to the table and said to the four ladies "She (while I pointed at the frantic lady sitting a few feet away) told me not to question it, but I want an explanation of why I have to fill out a provisional ballot that won't be counted and why am I not in the book!" The one girl looked at me and said "I don't know... what is your name again?" I told her my last name for the fourth time and she opened her book again... the important book with the signatures. She flipped through pages and all of the sudden I saw something I recognized. My signature!!! I pointed to the signature and said "That is me!" she said "Oh... you are in the book after all!"

Really? So I said "I have wasted my time filling out this ballot because you simply overlooked me in the book??!! I was livid!!

At that time the frantic lady came over and said "what's wrong?" and the girl pointed in the book and said "this is her... she's in the book and you made her fill out a provisional ballot." The frantic lady said "Oh, you can just give me that and we will file it for you" and I told her that I will be voting electronically and not with a provisional ballot. She said I still had to give her the ballot because she had to turn it in to the Board of Elections. I told her it had my private information on it, including my voting preferences and that I didn't feel comfortable giving it to her. She assured me that it would be confidential. Yeah, right.

I finally made it to the voting booth, cast my vote and left the polling place in disgust. How many other people did they do this to that DIDN'T question it? Those provisional ballots won't be counted and God knows where my paper ballot went!

So, I'm sitting here watching the returns. The last two elections have made me skeptical and I have been trying hard to not be too optimistic. I hear friends bitch, whine and moan and get on soap boxes about both candidates. I keep reminding myself that there is no perfect candidate so I must choose between what is handed to me.

It is what it is.

In my eyes those people that are bitching really don't do shit to better the country. All they do is complain in an elitist manner with a holier than thou attitude. Ugh. Get over yourself and be positive about something for once instead of constantly raining on everyone's fucking parade. We've had enough bad news over the last eight years. How do you live with yourself in such a constant pessimistic and miserable state? It must really suck!

I am happy that for once I live in a state where my vote actually counts. I want nothing more than to wake up tomorrow morning with good news! My 40th birthday falls on Inauguration Day and I can't imagine a better present than seeing Barack Obama being sworn into office. Hell, I might even take the day off!

Ohio, by far, was the most unorganized place I have voted in 22 years but I'm glad just to have the opportunity and privilege to vote. It is most definitely something I do not take for granted. Unorganized or not, I'm excited and filled with hope for change.

Thanks for voting everyone! Good luck with whomever your candidate is!

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.