Fort Bragg killings raise alarm about stress

Why haven't we heard more about this on the news?

i added the next blog link to my site and to my tool bar ... i love it on my tool bar cause i can just browse blogs without having to go to newly updated ... i mean there could be some out there that i love to read and they just don't happen to update it when i am looking for a new one ... so i have read a bunch of them today ... :)

6.25 %

My weblog owns 6.25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

[note: I wrote this last night at like 2:30 in the morning and my computer crapped out before I could post it]


I really wanted to post some photos tonight ... I finished scanning 2 more boxes of slides ... the ones from my parents wedding and honeymoon ... there are some great photos of my parents [they sure were cool] ... and some beautiful photos from Europe ... but my server is being a total bitch and just doesn't want to save any of the pictures ... I have tried all sorts of different ways to do it and nothing is working ... and now right as I Love Lucy is coming on [i have to stay up till 2:30 in the morning to see it] the cable seems to be bitchy as well and has gone out ... what is up with that ... ??


on a totally different note ... I can't believe that on Thursday David and I will own our condo ... the walk through and signing the final papers happens on Thursday morning ... it is so exciting ... of course it is a bummer we can't move in yet ... that neither of us has jobs ... so we have to rent it out till like January ... that part kinda sucks ... but on Thursday we are going to go over and take a whole bunch of pictures so we can start planning what we want to do once we finally get to move in ... :) ... it will be so fun ...


I never thought I would buy a place with someone that I wasn't married to ... then again I didn't think I would be out of a job for almost a year of my life ... I also didn't think I would be 32 years old and still not have a child ... hummmmm I guess it is better to see what life gives us and go from there ... leaves little room for disappointment ... cause even if we are both looking for jobs ... and living in my parents house ... and buying a place we can't afford to move into yet ... even with all that ... I am quite happy with my life ... I love David dearly and every moment with him is special ... I mean look for the last year we have spent almost every single day with each other ... both being unemployed ... and we still get along famously ... that is saying a lot ... I mean life was great when we were both working too ... we spent a year working at the same place and living together ... ya know what I guess we are just freaks when you get down too it ... hahahahaaaaaaaaa


well Lucy is back on ... but my server is still being bitchy ... so I think I am going to snuggle up to Davie and watch a little Lucy and fall asleep ... I still have about 8000 more slides to scan ... gotta get my rest ... :)

OK I was told this was "so like 6 months ago" by David's brother Drew ... but yesterday was the first I had heard of it ... and I find it totally trippy ...


$20 and WTC coincidence

The Google Name Game ... i've seen it on other blogs and just had to play ... :)


Liz is a no-show at the Sundance Film Festival

Liz is recording for Capitol Records these days

Liz is a beautiful, loving burro

Liz is someone she is not, and did something she did not

Liz is Stalking Me

Liz is so Good

Liz is a gifted counselor

Liz is available for speaking engagements anywhere in the USA and Western Canada

Liz is on vacation

Liz is planning a big millenium show

Liz is right

Liz is a full service salon

Liz is the only person I know who is buying new furniture

Liz is described as one of the Country's most technically perfect swimmers

Liz is currently anchoring NewsChannel 32 at 6

Liz is kind

Liz is very personable, but she also enjoys using computers

Liz is a true expert, a real mine of information who can answer all your questions and simultaneously entertain you

Liz is right on the money

Liz is always showing how much she loves us

Liz is Dead!!!

Liz is going to be a great addition to this team

Liz is one of the country's most innovative jewellery designers

Liz is genuine, caring and sincere

Liz is a real person who you can talk to

Liz is damn cute

Liz is the person you need to call first

Liz is not sporting any tattoos or body piercings

Liz is a really unique person

no internet all day ... normally that would drive me absolutely crazy ... especially since our living room area is unusable [all the stuff is piled up in there from the wet areas of the room while the super-sonic fans are drying everything out] ... but since I have this project of scanning my families slides I had something to work on all day ...


there were a bunch of things I thought about writing throughout the day but now that I can ... I can't remember any of them ... oh well I guess they weren't that life altering


right now I have a thing for Dianne Wiest ... she is in several movies I just love and plays parts I love even more ... right now I am watching Edward Scissorhands and I just love her in this movie ... she is also in The Birdcage ... one of my absolute favorites ... she also plays a great part in Parenthood ... and of course there is Footloose ... a classic ... oh and I almost forgot she was fabulous in I Am Sam ... I think I am going to keep a list of her movies with me and rent some of them while I am working on this scanning project ...


right now I have Clockwatchers [a fab movie that I LOVE] and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which I haven't seen ... they are part of the 'rent for a whole week' at Blockbuster so they aren't due till Monday ... so I still have some time to watch ... :)


well I should get back to scanning ... there are some great pictures in here from my parent's honeymoon that I am going to need to put up on the site after I go through them ... my parents both took some pretty groovy artsy photos ... can't wait to check them out ...

I just love 8:59 PM on Sunday ... it means Sex and the City is about to come on!!!!!!!

here is a sad fact of my life ... I am sitting here scanning the slides that were at Lucy's house [my grandmother in NY who has passed away] ... and there are all the pictures of my aunt and uncle [dad's brother] and their kids ... and I thought it would be nice if I sent them all these pictures ... I saw that part of my family at my grandmother's funeral in March of 1994 ... my uncle hadn't spoken to his mother in at least 12 years and neither had the rest of his family ... in 1999 I saw my cousin Jon's email address in a whois search I was doing [since we have the same last name it showed up when I was checking to see if I had changed the last name in all my registries] ... I sent him an email and we corresponded briefly ... maybe 2 or 3 emails ... then out of the blue in September of 2000 my uncle emailed me and said he heard I was living in NY and invited me to their house in the Hamptons for High Holidays ... I declined ... he wrote me like the day before and I just wasn't up to being the only representative in my family there ... [my aunt is extremely competitive ... and I had heard Jen had gotten married so that was something to show off ... plus I knew they would ask all sorts of questions about my parents and brother that I wasn't prepared to answer] ... before the funeral I can't remember the last time I had seen or spoken to any of them ...


so now I am trying to find any of them through the internet to no avail ... it is sad ... an entire section of my family is just gone ... it is weird ... but I guess that is how some families work ...

still scanning after all this time ... :)

I have scanned about 600 pictures so far ... and that is just the tip of the iceberg ... but I have watched some good stuff today ... just finished watching 2 hours of I Love Lucy [it is the reason I love Saturdays now] and now I am watching the second half of big daddy but according to tvguide.com it doesn't look like anything good is coming on at 11 ... and when scanning is so boring I gotta have something good to watch ... :)

so i have spent the whole day so far scanning slides ... it is so cool to see all these images ... i will soon be getting to the photos of my parent's wedding and honeymoon ... but i am most anxious to get to the pictures from when my brother and i were little ... those should be a great blast from the past ...


while scanning i have been sitting here watching movies ... i watched Space Cowboys and now ... WOOHOO ... Mommie Dearest ... damn do i love this movie ... when i was in junior high my best friend Dana Q. and i watched this movie all the time ... :)

my parents are photos freaks ... it could be possible to document every moment of my life in photos ... we are talking hardcore photo freaks ... my parents have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 slides ... we are talking a full file cabinet of slides ... starting from when they first met till I was about 20+ years old ...


so to be nice and a good daughter like I am I offered to scan them all ... and burn them on CD ... then she could watch them and we have a back-up ... so my mom bought this little desktop scanner for slides and negatives ... I dig it ... and to practice I have two cases of my dad's parent's slides ... so tonight I started scanning them ...


they aren't nearly as hardcore as my parents ... they didn't really take that many ... but I wanted to put an example up of some of the groovy one ...





my grandfather is the one on the camel ... my grandmother is in the green dress ... I just love these pictures ... circa 1968

oh I forgot the best part of our day ... when I came out from the interview ... David was sitting right out front of the building ... I got in the car ... David went to start it ... dead ... battery was totally dead ... and it wasn't like the car was even running ...


he was parked on the curb that turns into no parking at 3 and becomes a lane ... well it was exactly 3 ... people were honking ... like "ahh no shit I need to be moving well let me get going" ...


I called AAA ... turns out my card hadn't been renewed ... it would have been at a time when all of us were moving and probably got lost in the shuffle somewhere ... so my mom was calling to add me to her account ... when she talked to my dad who was on his way home ... so he swung by where we were ... drove the wrong way down the street so we could be front to front ... jumped my car ... backed down the street ... and we were on our way home ...


nice huh ...


when is it time for David and I to catch a break?????

man what are David and I going to do ...


I sat in that interview today thinking so many things ... none of which were good ... first of all she said it would be a temp job that lasted till December ... and she repeated several times that there was no way it was going to lead to a permanent job ... that really bothers me cause David and I plan to move in December which means it could be time for us to move and I am out of a job again ...


she also kept telling me how the boss is good friends with Bill Clinton and that he worked in the Clinton White House ... well to me that isn't a selling point ... AT ALL ... I despise Clinton ... and one of my first duties would be to catalogue all of his Clinton memorabilia ... ick ...


she also asked me if I had been an executive assistant to top level management ... which I haven't ... so that kinda freaked me out ...


who knows what will happen ... the interview just left me all stressed out that the fact of the matter is David and I both don't have jobs and I just don't know what we are going to do ... it is freaking me out ... big time

well I have an interview at 2 ... and I can't say I am really in the mind frame for it ... we stayed up late cleaning the storage room and the guys were here at 7 am cutting into the stone ... so I was up early ... our apartment smells like hell ... and it is pouring outside ... it is also for a 3 month temp. job ... which means right around the time we want to move into the condo ... I will again be out of a job ... ack who knows ... I guess I will just see how it goes ... :)

wow my links on the right side of the page totally weren't working ... glad i figured those out ... ok I Love Lucy is on so i need to get and bed and giggle while i fall asleep ... :)

updated my "Who is Lizzie" page ... so now it is time for me to hit the sheets ... :)

so davie and I kinda lucked out ... when we pulled up we saw my brother's car in the driveway ... once we got inside it turns out he came over tonight and helped my dad put shelving up in the storage room ... [David and I expected to spend tomorrow doing this] ... and they had moved all my parents stuff on to the shelves ... so David and I made the smart choice and started condensing our stuff ... getting rid of wet boxes and wet items ... and moving our stuff from one storage room to the other and putting it up on shelves ... we figured we get it done tonight and make my dad totally happy and not have to worry about doing it when we wake up ... some people are coming over to look at the pipes and the damage and the room looks 100% better ... we took out 9 huge bags of trash ... the biggest loss was a box of clothes ... I could have dried them out and washed them but they stank so bad I knew I would always smell that smell no matter what I did ... but we did do good ... my dad will be so happy ...

Well we got into Austin Powers in Goldmember ... and it was FUCKING AWESOME ... I just loved the whole damn movie ... I won't give anything away here but shit-howdy if the first 2 minutes aren't spectacular ... don't go see the movie if you are late ... cause you have to see the beginning ... I laughed pretty much the entire time I was in the theater ... I never once looked at my watch to see what time it was ... to me that is the sign of a good movie ... that and my stomach hurt from laughing so much ...


all in all I say A+++++++

so we are going to head out and try and see Goldmember tonight ... 'fingers crossed' ... i hope we get in ... i totally want to see this movie ... :)

that annoying space between my last post and the pictures ... don't ask what it is cause I have no idea ... and can't seem to get it to go away ... but at least the table for the pictures isn't screwing up my blog anymore ... so I am just going to leave it ... I guess it is like having a dramatic pause before the big pictures ... at least that is what I will tell my perfectionist self ... :)

These pictures are of the original flood on Tuesday night during the biggest storm I have seen here in Maryland. Such a mess!! But we did get to go out and buy a pretty groovy wet/dry vac!! The photos below are of the flood that occurred when they tried to fix the damage from the original flood.

so some guys came over to the house to see if they could figure out where the leak was that caused the basement to flood on Tuesday ...


unfortunately the work they started doing caused the basement to flood even more this time ... seems something is wrong with the sump pump and it is now pumping water into the basement ... so it is a total mess and now our apartment smells like shit ...


we are now waiting for a professional plumber and a cleaning service to come and take care of everything ...


I took some groovy pictures so I am going to post those here ...

ya know when ever I am bored I got to blogger.com and read newly updated blogs ... in all the time I have been doing it I really have only found Gregg's to be one that I want to read ... I sat and read the whole thing after I found it ... and I check it throughout the day ... his is a great blog and there are always good links for articles and sites ... :)

Last night I took 2 Excedrin PMs at 10 PM and got right in bed ... to me taking the Excedrin PM should guarantee me 10 hours sleep and relief from pain ... just to the contrary ... I couldn't sleep at all and I felt my back pain all night ...


and this morning the sky is already black with storm clouds ... which just makes me nervous for another flood ...


tonight David and I are supposed to go see an early showing of Austin Powers in Goldmember ... I hope we are able to get in ... :)

OK I added bloghop to my site ... and i sure hope someone votes ... i just saw it on the list on the site ... and my the rate bar looks so sad with no color ... :)

actually i am just quite bored at the moment ... i am sick of being cooped up in the house with my mom and david ... i want to get out ... i need a job and i need to make some friends ... hummmmmm seems like i have a "To Do" list ... i guess i just gotta go out and do it now ...

I may have started my day in a good mood ... but it isn't ending that way ... I am just a shitty mood right now


I wound up having cereal for dinner cause there just isn't anything in the house and that isn't what I wanted for dinner ... I had it 12 hours ago for breakfast and nothing in between ... I wanted to go out and get a coffee and David puts up a stink cause he has to study ... fuck man he has been studying all day how the fuck is 30 minutes going to ruin what he is doing ... I mean I went out and got it this morning ...


and my back hurts ... I now seem to be living with constant lower back pain ... I think it is cause my upper front is too big ... and after so many years the strain of lugging these things around all day is starting to get to me ... I wake up hurting ... it hurts throughout the day and I go to sleep hurting ... this morning I was sitting here trying to remember the last time I had a pain free day ... and I didn't know ...


if I were smart I would take 2 Excedrin PMs and go to sleep ... even though I took a nap from 5-8 tonight ...

so this morning when I got up I figured I would kill some time by adding a few things to my blog and maybe changing the layout ... I had a little while before the guy came to check out the basement and all of our leaks ... that was at 8 o'clock this morning ... it is now almost 4 PM and I just finished ... I guess everything got a little more involved than I had anticipated ...


so I have a new layout and added some things ... and I am sure I will want to change it again soon ... :) but at least it gave me something to do ...

woohoo good news on the horizon ... MORE STORMS ... that idea is just freaking me out ... we should move our boxes out of the storage room ... and build some of the shelves my dad brought home ages ago ... but I don't see it happening ...


and some guy from the company that built the house is coming over this morning ... check the damage from all the water ... maybe actually figure out how it got in and ...wow maybe even fix it ... what a fucking concept ... my dad has been complaining about it for 2 years ... but never did it flood this much ...

yowza ... what a night ... for about 2 hours today we kept having brown outs ... the lights would go out and slowly come back on like they were on a dimmer switch ... then the next thing I knew the sky just opened up ... rain was pouring down and an unbelievable strength and it was blowing sideways ... thunder and lightening were happening simultaneously and there wasn't a pause at all between ... then hail started coming down with the wind ... deck chairs were flying across the yard and patio ... all the while the lights kept going off and on ... it was freaky ... when the lightening started to get really really bad my mom and I decided we should go downstairs into my and David's apartment cause it is in the basement ...


when we got downstairs we went to the french doors to see the river that had formed in the back yard ... the water was rushing through the yard so hard core it had separated the grass as we were standing there we realized there was a huge puddle on the floor ... the water was not only rushing through the yard it was rushing in the door ... we grabbed towels and started mopping up the mess ... when I walked over to the window by David's desk ... there was a puddle of water on the ledge so I decided to check the bedroom and bingo ... same there ... what a bitch ... we mopped everything up and David and I decided to go out to the garage to have a smoke and check out the storm ... as we walked in we heard my mom yell ... "Liz bring me all the towels in the mud room ... the dining room is standing in water ...


so much water had come in the dining room window that the wall was soaked and there was about 2 inches of water on the floor ... while my mom used the towels around the window David got the mop and bucket and started sopping up the water ... while I went around to check the other windows ... the living room window, two windows in the family room, the sliding glass door in the breakfast room and one window in the guest room ... all had water coming in the window ... puddles on the floor and the carpet was soaked ... I grabbed more towels to stop the damage and decided to check upstairs to see what had happened there ...


the office, my parents bedroom and my mom's closet all had water coming in the window ... it was just a mess ... we got more towels and cleaned all that up ... our dinner was ready so I went down to put everything on the table when David came upstairs and said "The basement is flooded ... I mean really flooded" ... my mom and I went downstairs to find over 2 inches of water in the two store rooms ... all of mine and David's stuff was standing in water ... we were all pissed and in shock ...


David and I went up to eat our now coldish dinner while my mom called to see how late Home Depot was open ... once we finished dinner we headed for the Depot to get a wet/dry vac ... it was the only way we were going to get all the water cleaned up ...


a lot of it looked like it had dried while we were gone but we opened up the vac anyway ... it took us over an hour ... but we wound up sucking up 18 gallons of water ... and that was just what we could get to ... there were some boxes and stuff we couldn't move ... that are probably ruined ... but the huge puddles we got to ... I can't believe there was so much water ...


thank god we are living here cause I don't know what my mom would have done without us ... my dad is only home on the weekends and she would have been freaking out ... it felt great that we could be here to help out ...

in the summer of 1998 I lived in North Carolina ... actually I think I was there close to 5 months ... maybe 4.5 ... anyway I became great friends with this woman Karen ... we were inseparable ... she was from NY and I was still living in cali ... I went to DC to visit my parents and wound up taking the train to NY so I could hang out with her for a while ... we talked on the phone all the time ... chatted online ... emailed ... I thought she would be a friend of mine for life ...


there was one thing about her though I could never understand ... she really felt you weren't a complete person [woman] unless you got married ... I always thought it was silly ... why would a woman need a man to be a complete person ... shit in my experiences you became half a person in some relationships ... but whatever ... this is what she felt and it was her mission to find a husband ... more power to her ...


well in 2000 when I got the job interview in NY I was thrilled ... I was going to live near Karen ... I already had a friend there ... I took the train from DC [where I was living at that time] to NYC and met Karen and her then boyfriend for dinner near the train station before taking the LIRR out to Long Island for a job interview the next day ... it was great seeing her but she had changed a lot ... to be quite honest the guy she was dating was an asshole ... he kept telling her she was fat and she didn't do anything all day ... he was rude to me and constantly cut me off while I was talking ... after dinner Karen and I wanted to hang out and get a coffee ... I mean I had a little over an hour before my train to Long Island but he said no way ... he wasn't going to sit around and do fucking nothing while we gabbed ... so reluctantly we said good-bye and I sat on the floor of the train station for an hour waiting for my train ...


I got the job and moved to NY ... at least I thought I would get to hang out with Karen without her boyfriend or talk on the phone and stuff ... I could take the train to the city on the weekend and we could spend time together ... but in the next two weeks while I moved myself out to LI ... he moved himself into her posh apartment in the city ... the few times we talked when I first moved there she didn't want to do anything unless her man was coming along ... and he was always busy when we tried to make plans ... I couldn't understand why she couldn't go out without him ...


well Kris came to visit me after I had lived in NY for about 1.5 months ... I was so excited that I was actually living out there when Kris was there ... she and I had visited NY together ... but this time we could go out and party and we had a place to crash ... besides now I knew someone living in the city who would be able to take us to groovy bars ... and Karen has always wanted to meet Kris ... I talked about Kris all the time when Karen and I were hanging out ...


so we made plans to go out in the city one night ... Karen never showed and never called ... I called her a couple of times the next day only to get her machine ... kris was with me for 2 weekends ... on the last day of her final weekend I was taking the train with her into the city ... we were going to hang out and have lunch before she flew home ... I finally got a hold of Karen ... and we made plans to all go out to lunch ... unfortunately her boyfriend was coming along but OK I could deal with that ... again Karen was a no show ... no call on my cell phone ... no answering her cell phone or anything ... that is fucked up ... you don't do that to a friend ...


every once in a while I would call Karen ... leave a message on her machine or maybe get her on the phone for just a minute ... but she never really had time for me ... this is someone I had spent almost 5 months with every single day ... all day long ... she finally called me one afternoon to tell me she was getting married ... of course I was happy for her ... she was accomplishing her life goal ... to be a Mrs. ... I may not like the guy but I was happy for her none-the-less ... well after the wedding was announced her time became even more sparse ...


she had a bachelorette party ... in the city ... that started at 4:30 on a Friday ... I worked till 6:30 out on Long Island ... I was willing to take the train and get out there about 8 at night but no one could tell me where they would be ... Karen told me if I were a real friend I would take the day off [i wasn't in the position to do that] ... when I told her I couldn't she got pissed ... she said if I wouldn't take the whole day off then I should at least take the train up there at 8 and called a list of cell phones she was providing me and hope to find them ...


now I believe I am a good friend ... but no one could guarantee I would find them ... let alone I don't know my way around the city that well ... so once I knew where they were I would have to hope I could figure out how to get there [alone] before they left to head somewhere else ... I wasn't really willing to attempt all this ... so I declined the invitation to the party ... Karen and her friend Liz sent me rude emails ... Liz wrote telling me I couldn't really be that good of a person or friend if I couldn't find a way to share this day with Karen ... Karen wrote me and told me I was being a bitch cause I couldn't be happy for someone else ... it was just insane ... but whatever ... if this is how they felt fine ... they would get over it and once their drunken haze wore off realize it wasn't a big deal that I wasn't there ...


so months later the invitation came for the wedding ... I hadn't talked to Karen at all ... I had called a couple of times and left messages ... I wanted to hear how her plans were coming along and that I had news of my own ... but never got a call back ... so the invitation came address to just me ... not me and a guest [my news was I was living with my boyfriend but she fucking didn't even know I had one] ... and this isn't a chick that was scrimping on the wedding ... her parents are wealthy ... she is their only daughter ... and it was a huge blowout ... and she was inviting me solo ... I didn't know anyone there but her and her friend Liz ... the bride and maid-of-honor ... and I got a solo invitation ... besides the wedding was in New Jersey ... I had trouble driving around on Long Island but to drive to NJ freaked me out ...


I tried to call to tell her I was living with someone and wanted to see if my invitation included a date ... but I didn't hear back from her ... 2 days before the wedding she called and said it would be really special if I could come to NJ the day before the wedding and sleep over at her parents house with her and Liz ... a girls night before she became a wife ... I said ... "ya know Karen I tried to call you ... I live with my boyfriend and I wanted to see if my invitation included him since I knew no one at the wedding and you never called me back ... I also called and left you a message saying I was a little worried driving to NJ alone so if David were invited it would make it a lot easier on me and still you never called back so I RSVP'ed no to your wedding" ...


she told me I was a selfish bitch not sharing this day with her ... how could I be so insensitive and why would it be so important to bring my boyfriend ... that no he wasn't invited and that I should just have the balls to drive out there alone and go to the wedding alone that it wasn't that big of a deal ... this was coming from a woman that couldn't do anything without her significant other ...


I was really crushed to think someone I considered such a good friend acted like this over a guy ... over getting married ...


funny thing is ... Tracy's parents were invited to the same wedding ... they knew the grooms family ... so I still hear gossip ... the groom had been married before and I heard how his mother was bragging that her son was doing it right this time ... his bride-to-be's family was loaded so he would always be taken care of [so crass] ... and I heard all about the wedding from Tracy's mom ... totally over the top and it seemed to be a display of how much money one family could spend on a wedding [and yet I couldn't bring my boyfriend] ...


so Tracy calls me the other day to tell me Karen is expecting twins ... I mean damn ... here Kris is struggling to have one child and she is a good person ... and kind ... and does everything she can for her friends ... she is ALWAYS there for me no matter what ... we have been through everything together and she is still strong and caring ... and here is this bitch that screwed people over in the name of a boyfriend and turned her hostility on others and just became a total bitch and she is expecting twins ... it doesn't seem fair or right ...


I don't know what possessed me to write all this right now ... I guess I am just bummed that the karma spectrum isn't working ... maybe I am just bitter that someone I grew to hate is having twins ... and it just doesn't seem fair ... who knows ... I don't feel I am usually so petty but Karen hurt me ... just doesn't seem right ...

man I woke up early and decided it was just too early ... so I went back to sleep and didn't get up till 11 ... which just seems too late ...


now I am playing catch-up ... and Jennifer hasn't called me back about a job and I don't want to bug her ... cause then she doesn't have to find a job for me ...


so right now I actually turned on the show Sorority Life or whatever the hell the MTV show is called ... I had to respond to some emails and separate laundry and thought I would check it out ... and holy shit it is so funny ... when Kris and I rushed a sorority we were older than most pledges ... we were already 21 and were able to drink at Frat parties and when we went out on our own ... and the pledgemaster and some others didn't like that we were able to drink ... most pledges can't drink at parties ... so they sat us down and told us we needed to watch our behavior [yea right ... I had left my parents house no one was gonna tell me what to do] ... then at our next pledge meeting they stood up and said they were instigating a new rule ... no pledges were allowed to drink ... at all ... I just bust out laughing ... stood up and said ... look I am 21 years old ... the law says I and the other pledges that are 21 can drink ... there is no way you can tell us we can't ...


and ya know what ... I was right ... they couldn't tell us we couldn't drink ... so we did ... we kept drinking and partying ... and the girls on this MTV show got the same lecture ... to watch their behavior and all this shit ... and that they weren't bonding with the rest of the pledges ... just cracked me up


so now I am off to start laundry and get a Starbucks ... :)YUMMMM

I just LOVE Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm ... the show kicks ass and makes me laugh so damn hard ... I am so happy I remembered to tape it tonight since David and I were out and didn't get home in time to watch it ... and there are 2 episodes on now ...


this really turned out to be a pretty groovy day ... :) maybe it is cause I started writing again ... I have been slacking off on writing in my blog even though I love to do it ... :)

Tonight David and I went to TGI Friday's and got the waiter we had the last time we were there ... and I sware he is sooooo much like Brian the Chotchkie's Waiter in the movie Office Space that David and I have a hard time keeping a straight face when he is at our table ... he is so enthusiastic and everything we order is something he totally loves there ... "ohhh that is just the BEST ... I want to tell him he reminds me of the waiting in Office Space but I fear that would be an insult ... especially since Steve [that is the TGIF waiters name] is really nice and not obnoxious like the guy in the movie ...

This is an email Kris sent me today that cracked me up:


Actually Taken From Classified Ads In Newspapers:


FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 YEARS OLD. HATEFUL LITTLE DOG.

----------------------------------

FREE PUPPIES:

1/2 COCKER SPANIEL

1/2 SNEAKY NEIGHBOR'S DOG

------------------------------

FREE PUPPIES... PART GERMAN SHEPHERD, PART STUPID DOG

------------------------------

GERMAN SHEPHERD 85 lbs. NEUTERED. SPEAKS GERMAN.? FREE.

-------------------------------------

FOUND:? DIRTY WHITE DOG.

LOOKS LIKE A RAT...

BEEN OUT AWHILE.

BETTER BE REWARD.

-----------------------------------

1 MAN, 7 WOMAN HOT TUB -- $850/offer

----------------------------

SNOW BLOWER FOR SALE...

ONLY USED ON SNOWY DAYS.

-------------------------------

COWS, CALVES NEVER BRED...

ALSO 1 GAY BULL FOR SALE.

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NORDIC TRACK $300

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GEORGIA PEACHES

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ALZHEIMER'S CENTER PREPARES FOR AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

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OPEN HOUSE

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(AND THE BEST ONE)

FOR SALE BY OWNER

Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica.

45 volumes. Excellent condition.

$1,000.00 or best offer. No longer needed.

Got married last weekend. Wife knows everything.

Good God. You're Blossom? No one is Blossom.

You're perfect, if slightly obsessed with your hair.

But should you really wear pink as a redhead? Shame on you!

So which Powerpuff Girl are you? Click here to find out

what a fabulous fabulous day ... woke up kinda early ... got a starbucks and all the stickers i needed ... watched The Birdcage ... and now The Brady Bunch Movie is on ... two good movies in one day ... and tonight Curb Your Enthusiam is on ... two episodes ... and if i can just think of something tasty to make for dinner ... well then i'll be all set ...

oh I totally forgot ... while I was at Starbucks ... the guy working there gave me one of every one of their stickers that they use when you buy coffee ... I had some and used them in one of my art projects and it came out awesome ... it seems to be the one everyone likes the most ... so my dad suggested if I get more stickers I should scan them and print them out ... then I could make a bunch of my art ...


hummmm I wonder if the project I made would scan well enough to post ... hummmm think I may try that ... :)

WOW ... someone has posted my blog on theirs ... It is Gregg Clare's the blog I went to last night that I totally loved ... and his post about my blog is hysterical ... ya know maybe I should put a link page up on my blog ... of blogs and other stuff I dig ...


I am in the mood for a site redesign ... but it can be a pain in the ass ... I still really wish I had thought of making a new image each day ... it is just brilliant ...

so getting a Starbucks does make me feel better ... and I got home in time to watch one of my favorite movies ... The Birdcage ... this is really just one of the greatest movies ... ever!!!

my blog is being so weird ... i don't know why all posts with today's date aren't showing up ... it is making me a little frustrated ... i should get dressed and go get a starbucks ... that would make me feel a lot better ... :) ... more than a lot better

Damn ... i didn't realize that [edit] link at the end of my tagline was on every computer ... for some reason i thought it was something that was only showing up on mine ... and i couldn't figure out why it was there cause the link didn't do anything ... then this morning i got on david's computer and checked and by god it was there too ... so i started messing around with it to figure out what it was supposed to be and why it was there ... i figured out it was from when i had 'comments' on my site ... but when i realized no one reads my site ... so there wouldn't be anyone to leave comments ... i got rid of them ... but i guess not completely ... so with a little tweeking the problem seems to have been solved ...


i watched the elvis video 2 more times already this morning ... :)

ok ... NOW it is time for bed ... :)

Oh my god ... want to see the best Elvis video ever? ... I have already watched it 4 times ... and I am about to watch more of it right now ... I sure hope the link works ... Elvis Video

I have entered myself in a contest to win Elvis stuff ... grand prize is a trip to Graceland ... i know I have gone once before ... but that was one funky place ... and i totally want to go back ... and you are allowed to enter everyday ... so if you, too, want to enter ... just click here

OK I just spent some more time on the Minimal Thought blog and it fucking rocks ... I so wish I had thought of this idea but he makes a new header image every day ... and then has an archive of them all ... it kicks ass ... and they are sooooooooooo good ... damn i really wish i had thought of something like that cause i don't want to copy ... but nelly if it isn't cool ...

I can't take credit for finding this story ... I got the link from Minimal Thought blog by Gregg Clare


Why was he even on a tractor?

Life is soooooooooo beautiful ... tonight was the season premier of Sex and The City ... I love looking forward to Sunday nights again ... seeing 4 powerful and positive women each week is such a great example and just makes me all happy ... but there is one downside to SATC ... it makes me miss my best friends so much ... I wish so badly I still lived near Kris and Heather ... hell I would take just one of them at this point ...


living in D.C. is fun ... and having David here makes it good ... but until I get a job I don't know how I will make any friends ... sure all the people at Starbucks love me cause I come in there 3 times a day ... but I don't hang out with any of them or anything like that ... and since Davie and I won't be moving into our condo till like December or January or something I won't be meeting anyone there either ...


ok I trailed off for a minute there ... I was talking about how happy I am after watching SATC ...


well it is totally time for bed ... I wrote this post hours ago but forgot to hit publish ... so sweet dreams!!

well I finally got on the 'find a job' bandwagon ... I went to two temp agencies on Wednesday ... one was great and one sucked big time ... the great one hooked me up with the headquarters for Discovery ... and today I spoke to this awesome woman Jennifer who is helping me find a job within the company ... I should hear back from her tomorrow ... so I think I will go out tomorrow and buy some work appropriate clothes ... it is business casual so that is a GREAT thing ... I sure hope something works out ... I really need a job


I'm feeling kinda icky right now ... I should go lay down and see if I can fall asleep ... but David is in there playing XBOX ... so maybe I'll give it a little while before I lay down ... naw screw it ... I am going to lay down now ... :)

I think David and I are going to go to the International Spy Museum on Friday ... it is opening day ... and the place looks sooooo groovy ... and since we don't have jobs ... why not go opening day ... :)

Doesn't this look great ... Lady Fest DC ... i sent emails tonight to volunteer ... so hopfully someone will write me back ... i figure it could be a great way to make some friends ... and maybe even find a job ...


i have been working on my art pretty hard core this last week ... it is coming out so great ... Heather gave me some great suggestions on how to get my artwork shown ... so i am going to check in to some coffee houses in the city and the art guild ...


well i should head to bed ... david is going riding in the morning and my parents are going to a wedding ... so i will have the house to myself ... wooooohooooooo

jobs jobs jobs

jobs jobs jobs ... we need jobs ... david and i have this beautiful ... awesome ... bitchen condo that we can't move into until we are working ... i have never in my life had this much trouble getting a job ... nor have i been unemployeed for this long since i was 14 years old and i got my first job ... that doesn't count the numerous things i made and sold to kids at school starting in 2nd grade ... i just don't understand ... david and i are quite employable ... and work really hard ... i guess it is time for a hard core temp agency search ... :)

jobs jobs jobs ... we need jobs ... david and i have this beautiful ... awesome ... bitchen condo that we can't move into until we are working ... i have never in my life had this much trouble getting a job ... nor have i been unemployeed for this long since i was 14 years old and i got my first job ... that doesn't count the numerous things i made and sold to kids at school starting in 2nd grade ... i just don't understand ... david and i are quite employable ... and work really hard ... i guess it is time for a hard core temp agency search ... :)

well the weekend is almost up ... that means no more entertaining ... and hard core job hunting ... tonight i found i think 6 more jobs on the Smithsonian website ... so i think tomorrow after Wally and Drew head out I am going to start working on resumes for the jobs ... I really really would like to work at the Smithsonian ... it would be so great ... so I am just going to keep applying in hopes of landing a job ...

We find a condo and love it

we bid on the condo but don't get it

highest bidder falls through

we get a call ... condo is ours

sellers try and screw us on price

we say no ... condo not ours again

all other bidders can't get loans

again ... condo is ours at our price


crazy stuff ... but as it turns out condo is ours ... papers were signed yesterday and we take ownership on august 1st ... although we won't be moving in for about 6 months ... we are going to rent it out until we have jobs and some savings ... i have a floorplan that i am going to scan ...

The Lights That Didn't Fail

Let's celebrate all that's right with our great country.


Wednesday, July 3, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT I mark the coming holiday remembering the words of a friend of Samuel Johnson, who said, "I meant to be a philosopher, but happiness kept breaking through." Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and we must celebrate. Let us hold high a single sparkler to honor those American institutions that, in this interesting year, did not flounder or fail. Much has been said of those that did--Wall Street, big business, big accounting, the Catholic Church, the FBI and CIA. But most didn't. Some stayed good and some improved and some seem to summon a metaphor: While the towers of the institution tottered, the men and women who worked within them took the stairs two at a time, hauling 80 pounds of gear to save the structure. So: Let us hold a single sparkler to the lights that didn't fail.The U.S. military. Honored more than ever across the country and the world. They're not just tough, they're smart and brave, and to the extent we dig our way out of the current crisis they'll be the ones with the shovels and pails. Cops and firemen. Once patronized, now poster boys, and rightly so. They're exemplars of courage and sacrifice, especially the firemen. What they did at the towers last September was like what was done at Omaha Beach on D-Day: They raced to fight a battle and proved we'd win a war. Airline pilots and stewards. Under incredible stress, in a fearful time, without combat pay, they get us seated, settled and flying safely and in style. They have tons of guts. They do their jobs in spite of terror threats, pressure from family and friends to get out, and Department of Transportation rulings and methods that seem almost deliberately designed to encourage the bad guys and discourage the responsible. The men and women of newspapers. We forget until history reminds us. But there are times when the lengthy, detailed, independent coverage of the great newspapers, and the gutsy work of reporters and editors, is irreplaceable. The past year reminded us of what Thomas Jefferson said: Given the choice between government and a free press, he'd take the free press. American television. More news shows, more stations, more networks means more voices, more views. Only 20 years ago Big Media still had a monopoly on information, greatly pleasing those who found stimulation in bland, gray-suited corporate liberalism. It's changed. Now more than ever we need options, now more than ever we have them. And: On Sept. 11, reporters and crews on the ground in New York literally risked their lives to get the story and the pictures. Television entertainment. Once MGM had "more stars than there are in heaven," but now the great studio of our time is a cable outfit. HBO will be studied by future social historians who'll ponder the cultural impact of groundbreaking drama from "The Sopranos" to "Six Feet Under" to "Oz." No network has reached such a consistently high level of product excellence since William Paley's CBS, in the first golden age of television when his shop was called the Tiffany Network. American wit. From Conan to Dave to Jay to Comedy Central. It more than thrives, it keeps the country together each night as comics and writers tear apart What Isn't Working Now. Science and medicine. Research labs, new treatments, technologies, medicines. All continue as the best in the world. Some day someone really will cure cancer. It will happen here. The Internet. On Sept. 11, it was the light that didn't fail. Phones in New York and Washington went down but the Internet kept humming. Separated parents, children and friends instant-messaged news of their safety, or wrote last words. And within the Internet this year the rise of a new institution: Blogging. The 24-7 opinion sites that offer free speech at its straightest, truest, wildest, most uncensored, most thoughtful, most strange. Thousands of independent information entrepreneurs are informing, arguing, adding information. Imagine if we'd had them in 1776: "As I wrote in yesterday's lead item on SamAdams.com, my well meaning cousin John continues his grammatical nitpicking with Jefferson (link requires registration) 'Inalienable,' 'unalienable,' whatever. Boys, let's fight. Start the war." Blogs may one hard day become clearinghouses for civil support and information when other lines, under new pressure, break down. Local government. The federal government tends to flail about at the beginning of national crises but local governments continue doing what they do: seeing that traffic lights work, garbage is hauled, libraries stocked. Local governments provide the basic services of protection of person and property. They did their job this year. The local church. Whatever is happening in the higher structure, chances are the ministers, priests, nuns, rabbis and brothers on the ground in your hometown are doing the work of God. They're like airline pilots and stewardesses: They're saving the institutions they represent by doing their daily work with professionalism and love. American abundance. From the farm fields to your table it all still worked, and shows no signs of weakening. A friend wrote the other day: "Have you tasted the peaches this year? So sweet they'll make you cry, the best in years. Tomatoes too." The American Dream. Our greatest institution. Our greatest tradition. It proceeds apace. Individual dreams continue to flourish, and we chase them with a freedom of movement, an encouraged creativity and a sense of possibility that remain unparalleled. The other day I went to the oath-taking ceremony for new citizens at the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. There were hundreds of people in saris, in skullcaps, in suits made in Romania. There was a hugely pregnant woman from Nigeria, dressed in a red-and-white plaid cotton dress; there were young Eastern European women in too-tight pants from the Gap; there were young men in gym clothes. The usual mix from all over the world. They were so happy to be joining what others of us were lucky enough to be born into. They knew they were in the right place doing the right thing, and changing their lives for the better. New Americans. We hold high this sparkler for you.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal. Her most recent book, "When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan," sis published by Viking Penguin. You can buy it from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Fridays

Wow ... my aunt is crazy ... now I don't want to say anything mean ... cause she is a sweet woman ... but boy howdy I would say my mom's sister is a little loopy ... she was telling me how her plants talk to her ... I understand talking to your plants ... they are growing things ... and it has gotta be nice ... but to hear them talk back ... it was all I could do to keep a straight face ... she is telling me how some plants that her soon to be ex husband used to take care of ... told her recently when she was tending to them that they preferred having her take care of them ... geeee I wonder why they told her that ... it is just crazy talk ...


but now I have found there is a Twilight Zone marathon on today ... my brother and I used to spend the 4th watching these ... even taping the whole thing ... I need to let him know this is on ... ohhhhh I gotta check the guide now and see which episodes they are playing ... :)

well everyone arrived today ... first my aunt and grandmother got here ... while my parents were off getting the condo ... and then soon after my parents got home Wally and drew got here ... everyone hung out ... we sat on the patio and talked ... ate sandwiches ... it was quite nice ... Wally was telling stories about how David took the car out way before he was old enough ... like when he was 3 he threw the gear out of park and ran over a fire hydrant ...


then my mom got a call ... now it looks like we aren't getting the condo ... I think the people were trying to stiff us or something ... and she said it was no deal ... then my dad said it wasn't for sure and we would have to wait and see ... so who knows what is going on ...


tomorrow we will be adding Jason and jenny to the mix ... 10 people here for dinner and festivities ... amazing ... wooohooo I almost forgot I bought all those American flags to hang up on the patio ... I must get up and do that first thing in the morning so the house looks festive ... :)


well I should get some sleep ... it would be terrible if I overslept all the guests in the house ...


happy independence day!!!!!

Well the need for a job has become more critical ... last night David and I were upstairs hanging out with my mom ... David was working on making his fried ice cream that he is going to serve on the 4th ... when the phone rang ... my mom answered and just seemed all excited ... I couldn't figure out who she was talking to but when she got off the phone she said, "GUESS WHAT!!!!" ... David and I had blank stares ... she said "Everyone who bid on the condo fell through ... you guys got the condo" ...


now David and I are quite excited cause it was the best condo we have seen ... but with both of us being out of work it is a scary proposition ... so we are taking possession of it on August 1st and we are going to rent it out till like January or so ... make some money ... get some furniture and then be ready to move in ... it was a great condo ... and I am hoping while David's family is here this weekend they will let us stop by and check it out ... we'll find out today ...

OH MY GOODNESS ... dinner was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good ... woohoo for the Kraft spaghetti ... it has been since 2000 since I have had it ... so the anticipation was well worth the outcome ... what would top off the evening perfectly is a Mocha Frap from Starbucks but I just don't feel like going out at all ... we'll see if the notion hits David ... he only ever wants to go if no one asks him ... :)

I am fighting a killer headache today ... but on a up note ... I just went to the grocery store to get some more stuff for our 4th of July feast ... and as I was browsing the isles I saw they are now carrying the Kraft spaghetti dinner ... this shit is my favorite ... it is what my mom always made when I was a kid ... I had no idea it was from a box until I was in college and I called home to get her recipe ... I was having a spaghetti dinner and I wanted to make it ... she said 'oh that is from Kraft ... in a box ... you just get tomato paste and add the seasoning' ... I was stunned ... I made it for everyone and they were raving about it ... when I was asked for the recipe and told them it was Kraft no one could believe it ... so tonight we are having Kraft spaghetti dinner ... I am so excited ... the stuff is the bomb ... yuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmm