walk it outttttt.

People who make up videos like this make my day.

aww hawww...

NOT a good way to start out the day.

This morning, I woke up, stretched...and mid-stretch, it hit me. Why was my alarm not going off? I rolled over and looked at the clock and it said 6:27.

6:27

[6:27 is after the time I have to LEAVE my apartment in the mornings to be at Gulfstream by 7am.]

I jumped up and realized that not only had I [evidentally] slept through my alarm, but also, my beyonce had not made his morning call to make sure I was up. I said, "OH MY GOSH."

and then I heard a confused voice rise up from the living room.

"What?!"

It was my one and only beyonce who had fallen asleep on the sofa. We had been sitting in the living room in my apartment talking [trying to make sure we were on the same page with all the last minute wedding "to do's" before we leave for NC today] and when we were done, he commented, "I'm just going to sit here for a minute and watch tv. I'm just exhausted and just need to unwind." I said, "Okay, but I'm going on to bed...I have to get up in 3 HOURS." [It was 2am.] He said, "Okay."

The last phrase out of my mouth was, "Don't fall alseep! Make sure you go back so that you can call to make sure I'm up. I'm afraid I will sleep through my alarm because I'm so exhausted."

So, needless to say, I was like, GAAAAAH! But I can't blame him...we're both really tired. We were packing for the wedding AND the honeymoon AND carry on bag for a plane last night and that requires a lot of thought and time, neither of which we had. [But hey...who needs clothes...really.]

I got ready as fast as I could and hopped into the car. I was 30 minutes late for work. (I hate that long commute. Bah.)

I am sitting here now, finally done with the prep for the morning meeting, and I'm so tired...my eyeballs feel like someone took them out and coated them in sand and put them back into the sockets. Not to mention, I had a couple of things I was going to take care of before I left for work. Now, I have to do that before we leave this afternoon. UGH. Can work just please be over for today...like...right now? Thanks.

this just in..

We leave for NC tomorrow.

I need to pack.
And do about a million other things.

bootyshake.

[...]

I don't have a permanent desk yet. Right now, I'm working from another woman's cubical because she is out on maternity leave. She will be back when I get back from the H-moon.

As if there wasn't enough excitement in my life so far...

THIS announcement was made recently.

Taking an unsullied approach to the writing, recording and production of their upcoming release, the decision to find a new record label was evident and expected for Orange County’s critically lauded, Thrice. Assuming control of their creative direction, Thrice has parted ways with Island records after releasing 2003’s The Artist and The Ambulance and 2005’s Vheissu, and have signed with Vagrant Records, on which they will release the four-volume Alchemy Index.

The Alchemy Index: Vols. I & II Fire & Water will be released on October 16th, 2007, with The Alchemy Index: Vols. III & IV Earth & Air to be released in Spring of 2008. The specific details about this ambitious project will be revealed over the next few weeks.

Stretching their innovation even further Thrice’s, Dustin Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi, Riley Breckenridge & Ed Breckenridge, expressed their musical diversity resulting in their most stunning effort to date. The Alchemy Index is an uncompromising artistic collection that represents the band’s evolution and shatters conventional boundaries. This quartet prides themselves on continually pushing the envelope creating the dynamic sound they call their own. It is this equilibrium that helps the band develop such richly crafted tracks and in doing so, it raises the bar once again for all that follow.

In support of the first installment of The Alchemy Index, Thrice will be headlining a 9 week – 42 date U.S. tour with Brand New.
Over the course of the next ten weeks, Thrice will release one video snippet per week giving the fan a hint of what is yet to come. Here is the first of ten.

Yessssss, 9 week tour with Brand New?! Sad thing is that it seems like all the ones near me on the eastern seaboard are on Thanksgiving. There has to be some way to get around that...



bootyshake.

GOOD.

Camilla Decides Not to Attend Memorial Service for Princess Diana

LONDON — Prince Charles' wife announced Sunday that she will not attend this week's memorial service marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had accepted an invitation from Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, to attend the service Friday at the Guards' Chapel in London's Wellington Barracks. But some have criticized that as inappropriate, since Camilla had had an affair with Charles when he was still married to Diana.

"I'm very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother Diana, Princess of Wales," the duchess said in a statement. "I accepted and wanted to support them. However, on reflection I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion which is to focus on the life and service of Diana. I'm grateful to my husband, William and Harry for supporting my decision."

Diana -- known for her charity work and tabloid celebrity -- died in a Paris car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, on Aug. 31, 1997.

Diana married heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles in 1981 in a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral televised around the world. They had two sons, William and Harry, but divorced in 1996 after admissions of adultery on both sides.

Friday's anniversary will be marked with a nationally televised memorial service and specially commissioned prayers.

___________________________________________

Dirty hooker...I can't believe she was going to go to begin with. Just go spit on Diana's grave, why don't you.

THE-day.

So, I was thinking about it yesterday, and while I may have mentioned the wedding in previous posts...I haven't really blogged about it very much. The main reason for this lies in the fact that it's boarderline driving me crazy. Don't mistake this to mean I don't want to get married. I do. hahaha) However, I haven't exactly enjoyed planning as much as society tells me I should. But, as the time has been coming nearer, I am getting very excited.

The wedding is in t-minus 8 days. My beyonce and I are leaving for NC on Wednesday after I get off work. Today, when I was getting the telecon set up for the morning meeting, I was talking to the woman I work with on the "other side" to get the telecon set up and she asked me if I was leaving on Tuesday or Wednesday...and we were chit chatting about that. After the meeting, it hit me. I ONLY HAVE TO WORK FOR 3 MORE DAYS AFTER TODAY. On MONDAY, I can say, "We are leaving day after tomorrow." DAY AFTER TOMORROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

This "it's getting closer" realization hit me earlier this week because I realized that my Beyonce was done with his quarter on Wednesday. I emailed The Cooke and told her how crazy it was that he was finished. I told her that all quarter, we've been telling ourselves.."whenever you are done with this quarter, it will be time for us to get MARRIED!" - similar to what you tell a child on Christmas Eve. "I know you've been waiting for this, son, but now it's here and when you wake up in the morning, Santa will have been to drop off all of your presents!" Basically, I feel like this son...I'm putting on my pajamas and brushing my teeth. I also have that throw-up-ey feeling that often accompanies many Christmas mornings (at least for me) when I anticipate my dad coming out - like he does every year - and says, "Well, it looks like Santa unloaded his sleigh!"

Basically, it all boils down to the fact that I'm so excited I'm about to bust with anticipation. :0)

It's 1:17pm right now...at 3:31pm, I will only have 3 more days to work before we leave to go to NC! Then...it's on from that point. YES!

this post, brought to you by the twin and the letter s.

I am posting this in response to the twin's post on social justice.

-It must be done with the other person's complete good in mind. For example, does giving the homeless guy on the street money when he asks for it help him or not? If you think about it, that's a complicated question. It might help him in the short term to accomplish his basic needs, but I think that sucks to just be getting your basic needs met especially in a place of such prosperity as America.

Yes, I agree. If a homeless guy comes up to me and asks for money for money, do I give it to him, when I smell alcohol on his breath and it's 8:30 in the morning? Probably not. However, at what point do I stop determining what is in his complete good? This same question can be applied to the much debated health care issue. Does the government have the right to decide what health care plan is best for me? No. They don't know me or what my life is like. I don't want a health care plan based on what the average is...or what the poll shows. Let me pick it myself. So my question here is...while acts must be done with the other person's complete good in mind (and there are some very black and white issues on that)...what about the gray issues? Everyone has different opinions on that. In thinking about what could be accomplished under the guise of "complete good," I am petrified. Who is to decide the complete good on the gray issues? But, just for the record, I agree with your original intent on this part...I think that if you have a terrible cough, you should go see the doctor, not just take cough syrup and hope it makes you stop coughing.

-We have to understand that we cannot meet all their needs. God meets our needs, at it's root. Satisfaction is not found in the things of this world but in Christ and in his death and resurrection. Not that there isn't great joy to be found in this world, but it's not lasting or constant. Money, sex, work, or family are not meant to fulfill.

God meets our needs period. I completely agree. However, it is SO hard to remember that sometimes. (well...all the time, usually) There is no lasting happiness that can be achieved outside of Him.

-It may not look like we think it looks. An example...reminding people that the homeless are people just like everyone else. They have hopes and dreams, eat, drink, sleep, have families, have stories, and have lived lives. They are not to be looked down upon, talked down to, or thought less of simply because they do not have a roof over their head. This is social justice because it's standing up for these people's stance as HUMAN BEINGS. To act like they are completely helpless wretches is just as damning as ignoring them altogether. There is a undercurrent of arrogance tied in with social justice and liberal causes, if you don't see it yet then take a step back and think about it.

Excellent point. Not only that, but there is SO MUCH to learn from people, just in general. I enjoy talking to people because I am genuinely interested in their thoughts and what they have to say. It is SO interesting. Learning how people think, what they value...I have learned so many lessons from doing that. Why should those that are hard on their luck be any different? Also, when a doctor takes the time to listen to a patient about why their cough is bad and how it feels, the doctor knows how to better treat the specific needs of that patient. Why would they prescribe a medicine if they couldn't figure out the systemic issue?

All great thoughts, twin. Now do you see why this was to long to put in the comment box? :)

who let the dogs out?

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on my lunch break today and he was discussing this story.

Two pit bull terriers broke into a house through a pet door Tuesday and attacked a woman in her bed, mauling her badly, a Pierce County sheriff's spokesman said. The woman was able to grab a gun and try to shoot the dogs, then break away from the attack and lock herself in her car, where she called 911, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. The woman, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital in Tacoma, where she was listed in serious condition.

His comment was: the dogs were frustrated over the possible limit of 5 years in jail for one certain NFL player. They are striking back for revenge for their fallen brothers.


Even though this is terrible to say, I busted out laughing in the car and knocked over my fries. Talk about a correlation...

.:HURRICANE DEAN:.

Wikipedia has the following to say about Hurricane Dean:

It is the most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Wilma of 2005, the ninth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third most intense landfalling Atlantic hurricane.

It was this hurricane that was the topic of phone conversation between my father and I last night:

Me: Hey Dad, how do you feel about having a hurricane named after you?
Dad: Well, I think it's great now that the hurricane is a strong one. I wouldn't want to be one of those wimpy hurricanes.
Me: hahahaha
Dad: And especially...if I was a hurricane? I would go STRAIGHT to Texas!

Disclaimer: My father (a UNC fan, as diehard as they come) doesn't hate Texans, he just hates the Cowboys and still harbors bitterness toward Mack Brown. :)



Swirl on, Dad, swirl on...

one of those days...

Today was just one of those days where I would rather do anything than go to work. So, when I realized that it was one of those days, I asked myself..."What WOULD I rather do than be at work...ever?" This is the list I came up with:

-eat a live cockroach
-wash and dry by hand 6 family size meals worth of dishes
-wear the same underwear 4 days in a row (it's summer people)
-talk on the phone for 3 hours to a foreign "customer service" representative to figure out a technical problem...but yield no answer.
-have 4 fingertips cut off right at the base of my fingernail
-write with a dull pencil - to where you can barely write because the lead is so low
-screw a rusty nail into my eyeball (righty tighty...lefty loosey...)
-pull all the hair out of my body...one strand at the time
-have the chicken pox - again.
-have my right arm dislocated by an angry Italian man
-sit through another showing of "Fern Gully" while a small dog yaps incessantly.
-sit in a room talking with a bunch of menstruating women
-have all the toes on my left foot sawed off with a hacksaw
-only have access to dial-up internet
-eat bad chinese and endure the resulting case of food poisoning
-sitting in a room that nickelback plays all the time
-only be allowed to watch the golf channel
-work welcome week with chris o'connor
-be forced to make handmade crafts - especially scarves.
-put my tongue on a cold metal pole and slowly pull it off
-drive behind a slow car everywhere I go for the next month. this car would drive 5 under, and i would be in a perpetual no passing zone.
-add another week every month to aunt flow's visit

That's all I came up with. Needless to say, rough day.

Look out later, there will be a post on China.

see attached.

Just see this post.

I still hope I get a good news phone call soon...

since it's been a while...

I thought I'd post another video.



wait for it...wait for it....hahahaha...talk about bad luck. Poor Hil.

and just in case you haven't seen this one...

got 'em all after the pickle...

(or alternately named, "What's the dill, pickle?" - a suggestion from the beyonce.)

The Beyonce and I were in a video rental location tonight, checking out our videos and the following conversation ensued:

Beyonce: So, does anyone actually buy those big pickles in plastic wrap?

Clerk: Believe it or not, they do sell well.

::beyonce and I stare in amazement::

Beyonce: I know they have hot and spicy ones at the other store on Abercorn...

Clerk: Yeah, we sell out of those regularly.

::beyonce and I stare again in amazement::

Me: Are you SERIOUS?!

Clerk: Yeah, there is a woman who comes in here on a regular basis and always buys 4. She has a kid that is always screaming for candy, but she just buys herself 4 pickles and leaves.

Me: That is amazing. I cannot believe that. Does she open it in the store and start eating it or does she wait until she gets in the car?

Clerk: She waits. If she did that in the store I'd probably vomit.

Me: That's understandable.

mmmmmmmmmmm...hot, spicy, crispy, AND firm.

Just how I like it. ;-)

self explanatory..

a new treatment for my allergic contact dermatitis.

thanks for the article, the cooke. :-)

i am michael bolton.

I had my iPod on while I was entering some data into the computer and it was on the "It's goin' down.." playlist. The way my cubical is set up, my back is to the opening in the cubical...so when people come in I have to turn around to see who it is to talk to them.

Well, I was mid-"office chair shoulder lean" when I heard someone make a knocking sound on my cubical wall. I turned around and the guy standing there was like, "I was talking to you, then I realized you had an earbud in your ear." We laughed and discussed what he wanted to discuss. Then when he left, I realized that he had caught me dancing.

Moral of the story: If you bring your iPod to work, keep the volume low, even if you want to turn it up in your headphones. Also, DON'T DANCE, no matter how few people actually ever come to see you in your cubical.


geez...

it's all about the rant.

I just finished a rant on the cooke's blog, now I will rant here.

These days are all the same for me.

- Get up at 5:15, hurry to get ready and be out the door by 6:15-6:20.
- Get to work at 7ish.
- Waste time until 7:30. (nothing for me to do)
- Go downstairs, make copies for the 8:30 mtg.
- Get done at 8am.
- Sit and waste time until the 8:30 mtg.
- Struggle to stay awake through the 8:30 mtg.
- At 9:10, head back upstairs.
- At this point, I usually send a myriad of emails out to different people, but
send mostly news stories I've found to the twin and the cooke. I'll do a couple
of tasks during this, but never over 30 minutes in length, total.
- Lunch at 11:30.
- Back from lunch by 12:20ish.
- Spend time trying to find something to do, because I've already read Fox News,
Time, CNN, People, and all the blogs by this point.
- Ask my supervisor if there is anything I can do. He responds with something
inane...either a mindnumbing task like enter numbers into the computer, or he
will say for me to get proactive and see if there's anything I can find to do.
(Whatever the heck that means.)
- Wait around until 3:30.

Sometimes this changes in the afternoons...there have been a couple of times I have received a task when I get back from lunch. After this point, I drive back to the apt where I madly work on wedding stuff until about 12:00am...I just can't seem to get to bed before that anymore. I'm tired. I'm just putting one foot in front of the other these days.

But that will ALL change in about 2 weeks. At least I won't be as tired anymore. I will be able to go to bed at a decent time, since I won't have to go back over to my apt. at night anymore. It's just frustrating...I would love to do the job they hired me for, but it seems like there needs to be some organization by the company before I can do it. ug. AND the thing that steams me the most...if I am anywhere past 7:00 coming in to work, I get a "you know work starts at 7" look and comment. It infuriates me. Don't act like I'm not doing my job if I have nothing to do for the firt 30 minutes I get there. I'd rather just sleep longer and come in at 7:30 and take the doc in pay. That's fine. Sitting around doing nothing is okay for a while, but then, it just gets irritating. I hope I get a good news phone call soon...

man alive...

It is 9:30am. I feel like my eyelids weigh 10,000 lbs (probably because last night was roughhhhh.) I am also very bored. Please, someone do something to keep me entertained today. Thank you.

i don't make this stuff up...

I'm listening to Luda at work today and I hear:

I'll jump off the G4, we can meet outside...

This confirms my sneaking suspicion that rappers like airplanes. Mainly those manufactured by Gulfstream.

thinking...

Be Kind

We are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.

One is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.

But age is the total of
our doing.
They have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.

Not their fault?

Whose fault?
Mine?

I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.

Age is no crime

but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life

among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives

is.


~ Charles Bukowski

thank you YMCA for making me throw up a little.

For a while now, my Beyonce and I have been sitting on the sofa in the evening making remarks about our lack of physical fitness. Even though walking in the Savannah heat index of 120 might seem like a work out for some, it's not doing us much good. Tonight, we acted. There is a YMCA that is like 2.5 miles from our apt, so we went tonight and got a membership. Since the wedding is now less that 30 days away (23 to be exact) we were able to get a FAMILY MEMBERSHIP. Yes, you read correctly...a family membership. The man handed me the paper work, since the draft will come from my bank account, (since I am now the breadwinner haha) and they made me list my "family members" and their relationships. So, I had to write my name as Katie S. and then my Beyonce's name and HUSBAND. HUSBAND. I poked my Beyonce in the side and pointed to the blank. He gave me a half excited, half nervous smile as I wrote the long word, letter by letter...h...u...s...b...a...n...d.

For so long it's been just a deadline. It's things like this that make my heart go pitter patter. :0) So, thank you YMCA for making me throw up a little.

along the same lines...

as the twin's last comment, I will post one other story.

Back when my dad was at Siler City at a church, there was a very large family there whose last name was Poe. So every time we took a vote on some church matter, he would say,

"All for this proposition passing, say I..."
[i...]
"All oppose, same sign."

For years I thought he was saying, "All the Poe's...same sign." As if to notify the church that, yes, in fact...all the Poe's in our church were in agreement on this vote. I always thought it was weird for him to let everyone know that...why did it matter anyway? So when I finally asked him, he BUSTED out laughing. We still laugh about it every once and again. :)

how naive we are...

There has been some email chatter about the end of the world occuring during the year 2012. It reminded me of a story about my childhood.

When I was younger, I used to be afraid of the "end of the world" or the "rapture" or anything along those lines. And to be honest, I'm still not completely comfortable with the idea. I think it is the uncertainty that surrounds the end times that concerns me. It's like Billy Graham once said...he's not afraid of dying, but of the process of death.

Anyway.

I remember being about 8 or 9 years old and sitting in church one day, listening to the preacher (not my dad) preach and he mentioned the verse in 1st Thessalonians that states:

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

So somehow in my young mind, I felt a peace. I thought, "If the Bible CLEARLY states that no one knows the time, then everyone who makes a doomsday prediction must instantly be wrong." So...to give myself even more peace, I thought I would prevent the end of the world being soon by saying every day, "Jesus will come today," therefore instantly creating this "problem" for Jesus because if he came back that day, I would have known. So, this would be a contradiction to scripture, and that can't happen. So clearly, I had found the answer.

Oh how funny that is when I look back on it...to think that I could tell God what to do. I'm sure God had a good chuckle at it too...as he does everytime I try to limit his power in my life. We're all still children, in our heart of hearts. Now, I no longer try to limit God's ability to end the world, I just try to limit his ability to watch over me with his perfect plans for my life. It's days like today when I feel like I am not an adult, just a child in a larger body...and I will always remain a child of God.