the newlyweds in vegas....

as i have stated before, i will be bitter for the rest of my life about missing jennette & mike's wedding in vegas. but i am so happy for them. now i have a brother-in-law! and he's a brother! hahahaha!!! i crack myself up... anyways, mike's already been a part of our family for years, so now it's official.

p.s. i read a headline on CNN this morning: "carson desk to head for auction block" and for a moment thought they were auctioning off his actual head!!!

time for a ramble.....

i finally saw the film "harold and maude". it's now one of my favorite films of all time. i want to be like maude when i grow up!!!

i am getting used to the new work schedule. my bro zak says i have to be a "beast" and just get through it. so after a 10 hour work day, i just force myself to go home and clean the house, grocery shop, or even work sometimes. it's more physically exhausting then anything. i am loving the work so that helps. being downtown makes me happy and i like my coworkers. so i keep all that in mind and try not to bitch too much. the 6-8 hours on saturday is what's difficult. having one day off just sucks! but i remind myself that at least i get paid for the OT.

ok, now go rent "harold and maude"!!!

this is david AT WORK! i love when you can have fun at work. this place is a lot of hard work, but we do have fun.

so i decided that if i am going to get through these 50-60 hour weeks, i have to take better care of myself. i am taking all my vitamins and getting a B12 shot every month (my levels were low and that can cause fatigue.) since i only have 1 day off a week, i am not going to make any big plans. i have so much cleaning and errands to run when i finally have down time, so making plans just isn't working out. from now until the end of the year (when the project MUST deliver) i will basically have no life. it's only temporary and i knew it would be like this going in. this may be my only chance to make enough money to put a downpayment on the house someday. plus the vet bills for my menagerie are huge. so getting paid hourly (including OT) means i will make a nice chunk of change. not bad for a college drop-out!

1. ramen noodle: i made a disasterous discovery last night. i found that if you boil the noodles, drain and add butter with the flavor pack, it's delicious! my friend laura recommended this years ago, but i'd never tried til last night. so basically i found a way to make ramen noodle soup more unhealthy. genius!

2. bees: i was talking to the gay-bor (gay neighbor) last night. i asked why he had a ladder to the roof of his house. he said, "oh, i am going up after dark to kill a bee hive in the rafters. i proceeded to flip out, stammer and get goosebumps. i told him about my nightmare and he must have thought i was insane. well, he probably already thought that........ anyways, he would not be convinced to hire an exterminator and i ran inside to make sure there were no holes in the screens where bees might sneak in. i went to bed and dreamt about writing this blog about the gay-bor and his bees!

i wonder if the 60 hour work week has anything to do with all this........ i should be running through the streets in a bee keeper's outfit by the end of the week.

last night's bad dream..... i went to live with some white trash family in the south. a bee came by as i was walking into the house, so i decided not to freak out and run like i usually do. everyone says they won't sting you if you leave them alone. of course the thing stung me. in the house i got stung again, and again. the parents of the house told me to stop being a baby. there were kids ranging from toddlers to my age, and they wouldn't listen either. then they all started getting stung. it really hurt! i finally realized there was a huge bee hive in the rafters. they didn't seem concerned and said an exterminator would be out in a few weeks. at that point i was covered in stings, and it was so painful and vivid! i kept complaining, so they went and bought a few cans of raid and said they'd take care of it themselves.

so i got all the kids into a back room closet, because i knew it wouldn't work. they sprayed the hive and told us to come out, the bees were all dead. everyone went out but me. i watched through a crack in the door as a huge swarm of bees formed. i ran outside into a truck, and the family started screaming and running out. one little boy was stung so badly, his skin on his torso started to look like a turtle shell!

a few of the kids my age got into the truck and we drove off. we found a county fair and decided to check it out. i was having trouble walking (from bee stings on my right foot.) then my left foot started to really hurt. i sat down and took my shoe off and found a tiny brown mole attached to my heel! it hurt so bad and i finally tore him off, but his weird tail/stinger was still in my foot, and it was so painful! the one girl looked at me and said, "i used to think it was so cool when people had really bad injuries, but now it just makes me angry"

then i woke up.

crazy people.....

my friend fernando tells me he saw a guy downtown, on all fours, licking the sidewalk. we started talking about the wild things we've seen downtown. there's a guy who stands at the corner of my building after work and shouts out voting suggestions for non-exsistant issues. "vote for issue 1!!! save the people of new orleans from alligators!!!"

today's bus ride in was another example of crazy. i sat next to an older black gentleman in a straw panama hat. he appeared to be having a heated discussion with the bus driver about politics. then i noticed the whiskey on his breathe, and realized the bus driver was ignoring him. i started listening to him and decided to take notes. here's a rough transcript

"ya know they might bring back the gullietine.....don't throw stones! city, county, state and federal, they all liars! fun and games....(laughs to himself)......handicapped in this white city....dope operators...(wild hand gesture).....you know it! hahahaha!!!! everybody ok? see y'all on the 40th floor!"

ok, topic number 2 (wink, wink) is public restrooms. if there are 3 stalls, and i am in one of the end stalls, do not choose the middle stall! always keep a "buffer stall" whenever possible. also, do not spend 20 minutes doing your hair and makeup in the public restroom. don't sit in the stall on your cell phone talking. TCB (take care of business) and leave!!!

ok, back to work....

this is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. i want to live in this museum! alas, it's in hong kong so that will probably not happen.

my blog has been super sucky lately. mostly because i am so busy with the new job, and not much exciting is going on. but i did get some great news. dixie's bloodwork came back and the cushing's disease is in remission. she's been off chemo for months, so this is amazing news.

ok, back to being boring.....

this is my sister's dog gus. he always looks sad, so don't blame it on the super cool statue of liberty hat i put on him!!!!

big news: the router is set up and working. i am blogging from the laptop on a super fast connection. todd is a miracle! i guess now i'll have to take back all the horrible things i've been saying about him.....

gorilla monkey pen is alive and well. he's been hanging out with me downtown. his auntie jennette was supposed to provide some friends for a party, but sadly she has left gorilla monkey pen high and dry.

and finally, i am super busy with work, so my blog will really suck in the next few months. it won't suck as bad as craig's, of course.

my bossy friend chris has bossed me to update my blog. for once i don't have much to say. i was sick earlier in the week, and then have been busy at work. i will write a whole bunch this weekend. i promise!!!

amy and i hung out yesterday and talked non-stop for about 6 hours. she's a chatterbox like me and we had so much fun! she's very afraid of clowns, so i got her a nice little gift.....

this is cathy. she was girl drink drunk and asked me to take a pic of her eye. she is a real good person and one of my favorite people on the planet.

ok, for all my ranting and bitching about the situation on the gulf coast, what can i do? i can try to get people to be understanding so that maybe they will help or send money. but what can i do? i don't have money to send and i have a job i can't leave to volunteer to help. some people are offering housing if they have an extra room. i would do that if i had the space. maybe some of you reading this would consider providing housing for someone for a few months..... i am going to see if i can at least provide a home for a few small dogs. if they can get them here i can take care of them til the families are ready to take them back. i am contacting the humane society as soon as i post this.

do you know that the bush administration had data citing a new orleans flood as the most likely natural disaster, and they subsequently cut their relief funding to 44%?

also, the airshow is going on this weekend in cleveland. i have fighter jets zooming over my house since i am so close to downtown. i don't think war planes are entertainment. and i don't understand why they wouldn't cancel so they could help in the relief efforts.......

i can't stand to listen to dumb white middle class americans talk about the hurricane. they think the people were stupid for staying. not stupid, just poor! most don't have cars or money for hotels. most lived with all family members in 1 house and didn't want to leave the sick or elderly. jesus, no one stayed for fun!!!

people watch the news and see mostly black faces, and can't relate. they see them as "others". but anybody who has been broke and struggled to pay rent can see themselves in those faces. those of us without savings accounts understand, because we couldn't have picked up and moved into a hotel. and what about the pets? i wouldn't want to leave the dogs and cats behind.

and now we will have about 100,000 refugees in this country. 20,000 people living in stadiums for months. right now there are 30,000 in that stadium in new orleans with no fresh water since monday. just raw sewage and 95 degree heat. people inside are starting to die.

and the looting. people are saying how greedy it is to steal a tv. they can tolerate looting for food, but can't understand a tv or jewlery. the fact is, these people are going on day 4 with no food, water, plumbing or electricity. dead bodies floating in the water. they are terrified and desperate and grabbing whatever they can. how is that hard to understand???

"These are good people. These are just scared people"