Monday, September 28, 2009

The biggest babies EVER


I am not into sports, never have been never will be. It is not lost upon me though that sports do happen and seasons start and end constantly. For example, because I have friends on Facebook that watch sports I know that football season has started. I think I even know that my home team is 2 and 1. They lost 2? I think they lost 2, the Chargers historically tend to suck. I presently live in a city that has no major football team (much to their dismay) but does have 1 major league team (I'm not saying any names, I'm sworn to secrecy as to who I was seeing today)(plus I'm going to fully bash them). They are rabid fans here in the city of San Antonio, of that particular team. I don't get it but whatever floats your boat man.

I have a unique job at work. I am special, my samples are special, the tubes I have the sample (blood) drawn in are special. It just so happens that this local major league team needed me to run their samples. I had to consequently go and take my special tubes to their doctors office and wait while all of the team had their blood drawn so I could take it back and treat it 'special'. Because, ya know, I'm special like that. Mind you, I have no enthusiasm at all for this team or it's player. Mind you, most people in San Antonio would give their left and right nut (or that of their more than willing significant other) for the privilege of sitting in the same room as all of these players. WHATEVER.

So here I was, waiting for these men to finish with their beginning of the season (hint the team is not football) physicals after which they'd come in and have their blood drawn. Mind you the ladies drawing the blood were not phlebotomists, they were medical assistants. Trained to draw blood but they rarely do it. Trust me when I tell you this people, when you have your blood drawn you want it done but someone who does it all day every day. We have a room, a veritable team, of phlebotomists at my job. I myself will only let 2 of them pull my blood because I have a nerve that runs right on top of my vein exactly where they pull the most. The 2 I let pull my blood are the 2 pediatric phlebotomists (note: most of them won't do pedi, these are the only 2 and THEY ROCK). The next time I need blood from these pussys, I'm sorry I mean players, I'm bringing my own phlebotomists.

Not because they didn't have good veins, no, no, they had steel pipes. Not that the medical assistants couldn't draw the blood, they were ok fine (not as good as our people of course). But because these HUGE 7ft players were the biggest babies I have ever seen in my God given life. Holy crap people you would not believe their complete and utter lack of balls. There was not a single one of them that didn't sit down in the chair and didn't whine. "I hate getting stuck" "I hate getting blood drawn" Blah blah blah whine whine snivel. One actually sat in the chair, worked himself up and then proceeded to punch the wall next to him. Can you say dumb ass? Yeah I think so. Several of them swore up a storm even after the needle went in their arm. There was squirming and bitching and foot stomping (totally serious here) and I thought a few of them were going to pass out cold before the needle even got to them. No. Lie. These guys can go out and play a game and get body slammed all over the place and have their heads slammed into a floor or wall but one needle in the arm? Oh hells no. Did I mention their ink? Only a few of them weren't covered in tattoos. Hypodermic needle though? Oh no.

I swear we would have had a much easier time if we just punched each one in the nose and collected the blood that seeped out of it. I even think they would have totally agreed to it. Ultimately in the end the biggest knowledge that came out of it for me is my complete total and utter lack of respect for these wussies. SERIOUSLY, these guys are payed huge amounts of money to be manly men and play manly men games. I watched 2 little soft spoken women coax these men one by one into sitting in a chair and have 1 stick in the arm. 1 stick. It was a total tragedy. We got the blood (barely) but the crap we had to go through was insane. I wish that their mothers could have been there to see it. Or even better, been able to tape it and Youtube it. And how much do these guys earn for being a manly men? Oh the tragedy...

It took me 8 years and 8 colleges



To get a degree that is. Well 2 actually, I got a 2 yr and a 4 yr. I was married (yes, I have an ex husband) to a military guy and we moved a lot. Plus there was just the turmoil of not figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up for an eternity. Let's see if I can remember where I went...
Hey I went from a Banana Slug to a Terrapin, up the evolutionary ladder!

Mesa College in San Diego, I took a German course here while in high school, yes I was a TOTAL geek and randomly decided to take a college course during the summer, for fun. It eventually counted towards my final degrees so I count it on the list

UC Santa Cruz, This was my first 4 year college and I can't even begin to tell you how wrong this college was for me. I went there for 1 year. 3 trimesters back in the day before they had grades. Yes, this college had no grades. Transferring those credits was a total bitch.

Skyline community college in South San Francisco, This was after I was married and the ex husband was stationed at The Presidio and we had a hideous little apartment in Pacifica while waiting for on base housing.

College of Marin, This was the community college north of San Francisco in Marin. We were offered on base housing for the lowly enlisted on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate bridge but it was nasty and had roaches. I refused to live there. Since the base was closing down they had officer housing available and they offered us a duplex in Fort Baker. If you've ever jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge you'd know the place, they pull all the jumpers in to the little Horse Shoe Bay there. The place a freaking beautiful. Too bad we were too poor to appreciate it any at all. Apparently it's been sold and will be some sort of first class resort. Awesome.

Montgomery College Germantown, This is in Maryland suburbs, the ex was stationed at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC. Only a feaking moron would live in DC proper so we lived in Maryland. This was the college that The Blair Witch Project came out of. I claim no responsibility and never watched the movie. Again, only a moron would....

Montgomery College Rockville, We went here for summer school. It's their main campus I think and Calculus was only offered here. This is where Tabitha and I had that math teacher with skin tight WHITE Levi's. Don't ask, it was a tragedy.

*please note
* I loved this community college (the Germantown campus), when they told me I was up for graduation for my 2 year degree I almost cried, I didn't want to leave. 4 year colleges suck. This was also where I had such a stellar teacher (in organic chemistry) that I decided to be a chem major.

Hood College, One of the bigger disappointments of my college career and that's saying something. It used to be a private all girls school. Now it's just private and stupid expensive. I was told I would have a scholarship. 2 weeks after school started I was told I wasn't getting anything. I went in to the office and cried. Seriously. And you know what? It worked. Got something like $3000 knocked off my bill. Only had to come up with something like $8000, for the ONE semester I had there. Redunculous. Obviously that was my first and last semester there. They still send me mail begging for donations. I don't think so.


And my final college may I never ever have to go to another college again, the
University of Maryland at College Park, A nice college with a very demoralized chemistry department. I found that even though there was no money in the department they had a fabulous dean and that makes a HUGE difference. We were on a first name basis because, as you might know, I do not fear making my voice heard. Yes I may have had a few petitions signed and burned a few bridges (Dr. Fenselau is a raging bitch, just sayin') but I built a few too so it was all good. Dr. Khanna taught me Physical Chemistry and I was in his office for every single office hour he had. I never ever understood that course and I swear he passed me on pity/effort alone. He was supposed to be retired when I was there and I graduated in 1999, do the math. He's still there. He patted my head once and told me I reminded him of his daughter. I think he had a thick headed daughter but I took it as a complement that he didn't kick me out of his class at all. He must really really like teaching, he was a gem.

Wouldn't you know it though, the one professor I had that most related to what I eventually found my niche in I still think is one of the most useless teachers I ever had. Dr. Lee's accent was so thick he couldn't pronounce his name, it always came out Dr. Ree. He put up overheads and then passed out packets of copies of all the over heads. No one could understand his english so he had to do something. Not a very creative man but hey, he taught Instrumental Analysis. Just how creative do you think we analytical chemists are anyway? He actually studies Genome Mapping/Typing and proteome analysis, it's what I spent my first 6 years in the field doing. Working with the biggest name in the research field might I add. Dr. Lee has no idea what he was missing. Poor man, if he only knew...

I'll have you know the purpose of this particular post had very little to do with what I ended up writing about. I seem to have a hang up with back story, have you noticed? My original purpose was to tell you about the UC Santa Cruz Occupation. I'm totally serious, they are experiencing a student led occupation. Freaking morons, they brought it on themselves. I told you I didn't belong there right? They say there was a student living out of his van and eating road kill back when I went there. Looks like they're all going to be doing that soon with the cost hikes. Not really, those wanna be hippies are all trust fund babies you know. I spent my loser Saturday nights doing laundry and being mocked by them. I worked in the building that's being occupied. My parents didn't send me weekend party money, I worked to to put myself through school. Looks like the trust fund babies don't want to give up their pot money....

Friday, September 25, 2009

Often I eat alone


It's the nature of my work. I don't actually work 'with' anybody really. I have a part time employee that comes in the afternoon to take over but he's here at like 3:30, long after lunch. So when I feel like going out to lunch I take a book. Not everyone is comfortable going to restaurants by themselves but I have never had problem with it. I'm antisocial, what can I say.

So today I felt the need for Chinese food. I decided to go out to the one quick and cheap place near my work (the food is terrible, really I can't explain the urge). Here's a quick not so tangent tangent for ya, we have a janitor here at work. Nice woman, in her early 40's, born again Christian (serious bible thumper), not married, never had kids. She's very nice, very naive, and high maintenance. You know the type? Real sweet but drives you nuts like nails on a chalkboard? She really wants a husband so she's decided to fast once a week. Because, you know, if you starve yourself God will give you a husband. I'm sorry, say what?

I'm just about done eating lunch and in she walks. And, of course, comes and sits with me. We work on a time clock here. I can see at this point I am not going to be getting back within my hour for lunch. Good thing I don't see patients here huh? She proceeds to prattle on to me and I still have my book on my lap and am kind of reading it and nodding and agreeing with whatever it is she's saying. You know what she's talking about? A friend of hers. Male friend. Oh and did I mention that he's dead? Now you know why I like having lunch by myself. Yeah dead guy conversation for lunch. With a born again Christian. Thank God it's Friday.

OK now here's what really weirded me out (mind you, I'm used to these strange conversations with her so the dead guy thing, not so weird), the quantity of food she ate. Swear to God it was not until I moved to Texas where I actually saw people clear their whole plate. All the lunch portions at this place were the same size, soup with crunchies, main course with rice (big ol pile of rice) and egg rolls or rangoons, and a fortune cookie. I'm going to say right now that I could never ever finish a whole serving of whatever it is on the plate. Much less the rice and egg roll/rangoon/whatever. I'd explode. It is physically beyond my capabilities. I think one would have to train to fit that all in. Plus it's not a very good Chinese place, why would you want to pack all that in? Apparently I was sitting across from a food packin' in Olympian. She started with the soup, added about a half cup of soy sauce and crunchies to it. Then her main meal, she added enough soy sauce to turn it to soup and then she scraped the plate clean. Swear to God I'm not sure she even tasted it. Then she ate her fortune cookie. Oh! Then she noticed I didn't eat mine. So she ate that too. Human vacuum cleaner much? And this whole time she's going on about the dead guy. She must not miss him that much because his memory obviously did nothing to quench her appetite. Of course I was almost physically ill watching it all go down. Literally.

And you know why I stayed and didn't just leave when she got there (and I had already been done with my meal?)? She doesn't have a license and someone had dropped her off. I didn't want to leave her there to walk the 5 blocks back to work. In retrospect I should have let her walk. After that meal she really needed to get rid of some calories....

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Homosexuality "represents the dead end of human development"

A statement spoken by Ukrainian Orthodox Church spokesman Father Georgy Gulyaev. Really now who are these freaks? Apparently Elton John and his husband (yes, it's legal in England, home of the more enlightened than the right wing US) were (are?) trying to adopt a 14 month old HIV positive baby boy in the Ukraine. Here's the commentary, Let Elton John and his partner adopt. It's really funny, I like the author but please note it's a commentary and not "official" news. They were denied. Of course. On the grounds that they are too old. Too gay more like. I mean really this is Elton John we're talking about here. How could that boy do any better? He's got HIV, no one else is going to adopt him and no one else can give him the health care and love that Elton and David can. Ever. Do you disagree? Can you imagine what kind of life he would have with them? And can you imagine what kind of life he's going to have without them? It's not a pretty thought by any means.

And oh lordy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Does it get more archaic than them? They make the Roman Catholic Church look like new age Birkenstock wearing hippes. I think they still do animal sacrifices and maybe even throw in a few virgins to boot. They are the ones making these policies. You know they have some sort of strangle hold on the government policies. I've never even been there and I am absolutely sure that the good Father Gulyaev has his sticky little fingers in all the politics over there. Don't get me started on what rules he breaks either, all those 'celibate' religions have some seriously big ass horrifying skeletons in their closets.

You know what Elton and David need to do? Pay the Russian mafia to get the kid. Those guys are bad ass and the only thing nastier then the Orthodox Church over there. And don't tell me Elton doesn't have that kind of spare cash. You know he'd totally pay bank for the kid.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Ask and ye shall recieve...



The Urban Cowboy asked for some pictures of the tattoo and piercing. I have yet to get off my duff and take any but I do have pics of my shoulder tattoo from way back when during that, you know, wedding thing. The kid was 8 months old. No comments from the peanut gallery, I wasn't really all that game for getting married at all. I told the man that he didn't want to marry me and he didn't listen. Don't say I didn't warn him.
BTW, the pics are from before I had it recolored, it's a bit darker now. At the time of these photos I think the tattoo was about 7 years old and had survived my teens and twenties where I sunbathed like a woman on a mission. To get skin cancer.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Friday night in suburbia


So the kid decided to spend the night at her friend's house tonight. I took the opportunity to get adventurous. My day was dull, noted only by the fact that I voluntarily got my flu vaccination at work. I hate needles, did I ever mention that? I used to have acupuncture done and unlike every other human on the face of this earth I can feel each and every one of those wee little needles go in. I don't hate needles so much as to not have my vaccinations done or blood pulled when need be but I don't have to like it.

When I was 18 I had a tattoo done on my ankle. A wee little 5 minute job, only a black outline since I could not even imagine sitting for longer so they could color it in. Oh hells no, it hurt. One does not go into a tattoo parlor and not expect pain though right? It took me several more years to get another, a Chinese character for 'love' although this one was filled in (blue to purple fade) it was still small and hurt like hell. It's old enough that I've had it re-colored since then and sure enough, those needles still hurt. Really though it's a good thing I can't take the pain. I love tattoos and I'd probably be covered in them (my employer would have a hissy fit) but the pain keeps me in check.

Notice how my hatred of needles still didn't keep me from getting the 2 tats I have though? Might I also mention that it didn't stop me from getting 7 ear ring piercings in my teen years and 1 nose ring in my early college years. I didn't even wear any earrings by the time I was in college because the holes themselves seemed to be very irritated whenever I wore them. It wasn't until I got the nose ring that I figured out why and that I was sure that I have an allergy to most metals. BTW, that nose ring was done using a piercing gun, it was almost 20 years ago that I had that thing done and it still sends shivers up my spine when I think about it. I had to take it out and leave it out since back then there were no specialty non-metal piercings that I could use. It really was a tragedy, that particular piercing looked really cute on my nose. It was not a septum piercing (I hate that cow look) but a side one and I used a hoop. I never got a picture of it, what a shame.

This week (Wednesday?) I decided I wanted a navel piercing. Why? I haven't the faintest clue, just all of a sudden it came to me. I im'd a girlfriend of mine to see if she had one (she does) and if it caused her any problems and since she has 2 kids if she had to take it out during her pregnancies. She had no problems with it and hers didn't even need to be taken out when she had her babies. She also sent me a link for navel rings specially made for pregnant bellies, pregnancypiercings.com. They even come in entirely metal free forms for those getting c-sections. So if I couldn't handle the titanium belly button rings I could switch it to this medical grade plastic pregnancy ring, I know my skin can handle that. Then I went about finding a place to do the piercing.

Do you know these places are open during the weirdest hours? Noon to midnight. Of course I didn't want to drag the kid into a tattoo and piercing parlor and have her see me get a 16 gauge needle shoved through my skin. No, that would be just a wee bit much for her. Not that I have a problem with her seeing my tattoos (she likes the ones I have) or my navel pierced but watching it done? No, she doesn't like needles either and I'd rather not make the phobia worse. Fortunately her girlfriend asked her to spend the night tonight and the spouse was game for a small trek to the other side of the tracks.

I must say these tattoo artists and piercers must find some serious amusement when the suburban housewife shows up for a bit of aesthetic modifications on her Friday night. My piercer was manning the front desk having fun popping bubble wrap. Yes, I'm totally serious. I (most pathetically) forgot to bring my camera so the pic is off their website. I won't show you a picture of my freshly pierced navel. Suffice to say right now ITS PISSED OFF and you don't want to see that. I must say though it isn't anywhere near as painful as getting a tattoo. Nope not even close. It's sore now but my arm doesn't hurt from the vaccine anymore. Lesser of two evils maybe? That's ok though, I have a belly button filled with a shiny fat crystal and a smaller one above it at the top of the piercing. I like it, it's very cute. I may not have a flat tummy like Megan Fox but mine is cuter, it's attached to a moderately coherant person with a brain. Oy did I just bag on Miss Fox? My bad.

My ring looks like this one only the metal part is blue. I don't have a thing for blue but it was the only one they had that was titanium and you don't see the metal barely at all, just the crystal shows. In fact that bottom big crystal fills my entire belly button.

This pleases me and that's what it's all about now isn't it?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

TV, do people out there actually watch it?

Yesterday I saw some posts on Facebook (yeah, I'm on all day) about how Patrick Swayze had passed. Of course, I had to look it up (on line, CNN) and confirm because you just never know what the hell some people are blathering on about (Farmville/Mafia Wars crap anyone?). It was then that I realized that 1) I don't watch the news on tv and then 2) I don't watch tv. Oh yeah we do use our tv, the kid sometimes watches cartoons but with her school and homework she never gets a chance anymore. So with that gone we on occasion turn it on in the evening but we don't watch network tv. We used to watch some shows that we'd put on the dvr but eh, we got over it.

We really prefer getting entire seasons on dvd and watching at our own convenience. I stopped watching the news on tv almost 10 years ago. It's just so depressing and none of it is unbiased right? So we have this dvd collection that has practically taken over an entire wall of our house. It's so unattractive but hey, we don't waste time watching commercials anymore! Funny thing is people out there do watch network tv, I hear them talking about it at work. Mostly the reality shows though, and Dancing with the stars, biggest loser and whatnot. I don't ever get curious about them though, none seem terribly entertaining. After all the Joss Whedon stuff gets cut I'm left with very little that interests me more than an infomercial.

What about ya'll? Anything out there you value enough to sit down and watch real time?

Friday, September 11, 2009

This picture, its BIG

Photobucket

I didn't realize how big until I put it on my desktop. You'll have to click on the dang thing to see it all. I picked the center option rather than the stretch, it centers it so much her head is almost real time size and it's mostly just her face.

I always have a pic of the kid up on my work computer. Today I looked at it and thought, dang I haven't changed that for over a year. She looks different now, kids change so quickly. The last pic I had up she was still a little kindergardener almost first grader. Now she's a big second grader. Where the hell did the time go?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The end is near!

It's a light and it's at the end of the tunnel! Alright ya'll want perspective now don't ya? I have been a part of a nation wide rescue, FBRN, for about 4 years now. From before I left San Diego (3 years ago) I was asked to help with the review crew and back then I fostered too. In the ~4 years I've been with them I have fostered something like 4 dogs and have had issues with the regime and no longer foster for them anymore. Well that's almost true, I'd foster if and only if 1 person in the rescue asked me too. And the only reason I'd do it for Eilene is because that last monster foster from hell I almost took to get euthanized (seriously I was going to kill this dog) was taken off my hands by her. This dog was fine, as long as we weren't anywhere near each other. This dog and I did not get along and I swear to God I had no idea it could be a normal dog. If Eilene had not recruited her neighbor to fly into my city and fly her back to Colorado that dog would be dead by now. Turns out that dog was fine, just needed someone else. Someone other than me, and thank God we found out before I killed her. I have never ever met a dog I truly hated. Trust FBRN to dump one on me and run. No it was not Eilene's job to get this dog a new foster home, she's just an angel and managed through some act of kindly neighbors to take her into her home. So for her I would do just about anything, even take a foster off her hands. Serious, her and only her.

Eilene is also in charge of the review crew. It's the small small group of volunteers who go through each and every application that comes in for all of our dogs and decide which ones get passed on to the foster parent for her to pick a forever home. It's a thankless job and really all we're doing is picking out the raving morons. If the dog's bio says no kids ya know what? Don't apply if you have 3 kids and are due to give birth to triplets. I shit you not peeps, this is the drivel we have to sift through. Each dog can get up to like 150-200 applications. HELLO how much free time do you think we want to volunteer for the morons who can't read? Out of 200 applications often there are less than 20 that meet the requirements we have plainly spelled out on the dog's bio. But you know, in order to know what the dog needs the applicants have to actually read the bio. Gawd for-frikkin-bid. Can I tell you how many hours of my life I volunteered to looking at the answers these twits filled out on their applications looking for that perfect forever home? The foster parents, volunteers the lot of us, raise these foster dogs as our own. They are in our homes, sleep in our beds, rely on us for (very often extensive) medical treatment. The fact that many applicants don't even put out the effort to read the bio does nothing but piss us off. We aren't going to give you that dog until we know for a fact that you'll love it just as much as we do.

The job as reviewer is a thankless one but necessary. We get to filter the shit out and no one knows who we are or what we do. Nobody says thank you or good job. We have people volunteer for this job but they rarely stay and even those that do slack off and don't actually remember to review on time, or at all. It's very frustrating for Eilene to have to harass those of us on the crew to get on it so she can send the foster mom her good applications. In turn the rescue group in general always and a I mean always criticizes us and how we do our job. Specifically they take it out on Eilene. She took over this job some 5 years ago because back in the day it could take a dog up to 4 months after the applications had been made to actually get it's home. Many of the applicants by then had moved on and no longer wanted the dog. Can you blame them? She turned it around and made a system. It's not perfect but it works and it works well and is as fair as we can possible make it. Shy of having a dog for every applicant that is.

Why do we do it then? For the dogs, we do it for them. That kept Eilene going for many years through all the bs that goes along with rescue. Trust me, there's a TON of bs. I no longer do anything else for the rescue, I don't even look at the Yahoo lists where people bitch and moan back and forth. I'm waaay too inflammatory and I don't have that little check valve on my brain that tells you to shut up or you'll make things worse and piss people off. And I did, with little regret. Beotches the lot of them. Except Eilene.

Turns out she has had it with the ungrateful beotches, thank God. She's quitting the job as review crew coordinator the end of this year. The only reason that I stayed on was as her second, her support when she was on a trip and what not. They can find another moron for a victim. Eilene tried to get me to stay on, she said they'd need someone who knew how to do the job. Get real, those beotches want to fill all the posts with their own yes men. They have their own version of a good ol boys club and I won't touch it with a 10 ft pole. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. They have this thing where they want it done their way because their way is best. Because, you know, doing this for 5 years Eilene could not have possibly gotten anything right much less be doing it the best way.

Yeah you know what this is? This is me not letting the door hit me in the ass on my way out of it. Do I think some dogs are going to have to suffer for it? Maybe. Probably. But only in so far as they will stay in their foster homes longer. It's ok, their foster mommies love them so there are worse fates. Gotta make the break sometime and I think this is the best time. Lordy I am not going to miss this job, I hadn't stopped and thought about how long I'd been doing it until last night and you know what? 4 years is too long, I'm going to let someone else carry that torch. Damn freaky dog rescue people. Dec 31st I'm out!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

I had his post up

But the hubby got really bent out of shape about it. I can't tell you why since I really don't get it but if he's bent it's easy enough to get rid of it. Obviously. I promised him I'd never mention him on my blog again so from now on if he has to be mentioned he will no longer be 'the hubby' or 'my hunny B' or anything that alludes to me having a husband. From now one he will be He Who Shall Not Be Named. Got that? Alright, now ya'll know, on my blog I'm officially husbandless.

Friday, September 4, 2009

I have photo editing software, really I do

But I have no patience. Plus I only have 1 computer at home that has the memory for doing any of the photo editing software and the pics and the hubby done got it infected with a computer virus. So I bought my camera in to work, downloaded the photos here and uploaded them into Photobucket. I am going to start the adventure of having the pics stored there instead of by Blogger. That way if something bad happens and I get pissed at Blogger and want to start my own domain I don't have to stress as much. No one reads my archives anyway. Plus the pics from now on are going to be with the new camera, fresh start and what not right? The down side is that I have yet to edit any of them, sorry. Oh and I also wasn't able to figure out how to put the re-sized pics up linked to PB, again, I'm a loser. I'll figure it out. Someday.

So last week I got a wonderful visit from the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world (I'm biased, deal with it)



I've written about Tabitha before (here and here), she was my best friend in my last years of college. We worked together as vet techs. We went to school together and our math courses often were the same. We even took a Calculus II course over the summer from a guy who wore really tight white Levi's. A total tragedy. Both the course and the pants. We were hardcore in trying to understand that class and we drove that teacher NUTSO. Yeah I was the student that all teachers dreaded. Asked every question that could possibly be asked and then a few extra just because I'd been in school waaay too long. Tabitha was pregnant with her second child and her first was still a toddler. We drove that man up the friggin wall. We passed but I ended up retaking the course since I just did not get it.

But I digress, Tabitha came with her boyfriend to Austin this past weekend while he had business to do out here. It's 70 miles away from us and a total no brainer. I'd drive way farther to go and see her. The last I saw her she had 2 kids (she's got 3 now) and it was February of 2000. Almost 10 years, dang! We met up at Freddy's Place, a fav of ours since it has good food, outdoor seating, is dog friendly, and most importantly a playground for kids.
See, had to get a pic of the dog sitting next to us. Since he was bigger than most of us...



There's a stage too that a performer is normally on but there weren't any shows right then. But that's ok, Tab and the kid went up and monkeyed with the tripods up there. Then when they were done a bunch of other kids got up there, tried to do the same and got busted by the staff. Haha!



Tabitha is so in love with children and sooo good with them. She managed to play with the kid on the stage,



Do up her hair




Watch her play Nintendo DS




Play with her in the misters




And there was some dancing on the porch involved there too but I didn't have my zoom lens so you can't but barely see them in the way far off of the pictures I took. See, 3 lenses isn't enough. One must always bring all their lenses, now I know. I went crazy enough with the camera though. Look like a dang Japanese tourist by the end of the day!

We spent hours there with them talking about how life has been in the years since we've seen each other. She has, thankfully, gotten rid of her ex husband (hence the 'ex') and has found a lovely man in her life, George.




She says she treats her like a princess so I find him perfectly acceptable. No really, I do like him, he's a very nice guy and Tabitha deserves the world. When he gives it to her then I'll up my opinion of him.

All in all it was a fabulous time, we are planning on doing an east coast trip someday and visiting them. If the opportunity came up we would move up near them in a heartbeat. I would absolutely LOVE to be around Tabitha on a regular basis, truly. I miss her. I missed her as soon as we drove away.

Love ya Tab, and I'm really glad you had a fun vacation in Austin!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

I haven't been to a concert in at least a decade

Have you noticed how Ticket Master is Satan? The price of concert tickets went up so much in the past 10 years it's more like buying a car. I mean what a waste of money! I am seeing Metallica tickets going for anywhere from $125-225, what the hell? It's not like you get to have dinner with the band or something. Sure they put on a good show but really, the quality of music is going to be better on cd. I see that Alice in Chains are going for $75. Dude, it's Alice in Chains, $75? Are you serious?

I think the last concert I went to was when I was in college. I went with my then BF the crazy Italian guy Dave. Don't ask, he was a loon. The concert was No Doubt and it was in the late 90's. Very good concert, Gwen knows how to put on a show. Still I think buying tickets back then was a trauma since we were poor college students. Don't ask me how we came up with the money because I haven't a clue. We were, however, by far the oldest people there, everyone else had to bring their parents.

Regardless this was the last concert I went to. And no, I didn't stand and dance for the whole thing like the other tweens around me. Too old for that crap. I sat and enjoyed the show on my ass thank you very much. I haven't had much of an urge to go to a show since, the combination of Ticket Master and the goons that charge $20 for parking at whatever venue the show was at has been enough to dissuade me for a lifetime.

The hubby had a friend who wanted him to go with her to Nine in Nails something like 5 years ago and he went to that. It was a small venue and I hear it was really cool because of that. Now I tell you what, a small venue is what would make it or break it for me. I don't my paying (not a lot but some) to go see a show someplace not gargantuan. Not practical for most rock bands but for country it's do-able.

This Saturday we have Billy Currington (one of my favs) coming in to town. He's going to be at The Cowboy's Dance Hall and I'm sure it's going to be a great show. Even more amazing, tickets are only $15. Of course The dance hall is in a less than stellar part of town. Plus it's a meat market, I won't go by myself. Oh and I don't have any friends that listen to country. I don't think. OK if I do I don't know about it how's that for ya? And don't ask about the hubby, he found out that I down loaded Big Green Tractor and threatened to stage an intervention. He so doesn't do country...

So I'm on a mission this week to find someone (that isn't my husband) to drag out on a Saturday night. Hey it could be worse, Friday night is the PBR there and I'm sure I couldn't get anyone to go with me to that.