Save Second Base

Well the design is done. For those of you that haven't signed up yet -- get on it!! Deadline is 09/21 for online registration. For those of you that will be unable to walk, but want a t-shirt let me know. We will have baby, kids and adult sizes available. Final cost will depend on volume. I will keep you posted.
Now Listening: Tim by The Replacements

True Love

My parents have been married for 34 years. I think it is fair to say that not everyone of those have been picture perfect. But, they have stuck it out and I consider myself lucky to have them as a model to follow -- should I ever get married. That is a whole other post and many, many sessions on the proverbial couch.

I digress. Back to my topic.

But with my mom's illness, I have noticed a new level of devotion between the two of them. Nothing exemplifies this more than the scene I was able to witness on Saturday. As I mentioned, we came back from the party early. My dad and I had some dinner, and then moved out to the deck as it was a great night. Opened some wine and were just chatting. My mom decided she wanted to come out and join us. So we got her situated, and I had to run inside for a minute. As I was doing that, my dad said something about turning on the CD player. My uncle has the whole house wired -- including the deck, so I turned it on shuffle. As I was coming outside, the Temptations "My Girl" had shuffled through the play list. I opened the door, and there was my dad singing to my mom.

I actually had to turn away and compose myself a little bit. I felt like such an intruder on a very personal moment. However, as I told this story to Martine, she reminded me how lucky I was to actually have that memory.

And I agree.

Catching Up

Well kids, it has been a little bit since I have posted. However, it has not been for lack of things occurring in the always intriguing world of Meghan. Less a day go by that something blog-worthy doesn't happen. It just so happens that the last few days have been somewhat technology constrained. I was regulated to dial-up access at my uncles' house. And man, how did we EVER live with that as a Internet option? Just checking an email took forever. Hell, I think my cell phone is faster. And then I ended up at my parents for a day or so. Their computer is totally on the fritz and ranks somewhere in the neighborhood of #826 on the priority list these days to fix.

So, back in the saddle I get with an update on the last few days in my little red-head world.

What, ask the screaming masses ( I imagine you all as screaming when I don't post for a day or so), have you oh teller of the urban legend been up to?

Headed up to Cedar Falls on Friday after work for my great-Aunts' 80th birthday party. It turned into a pseudo-family reunion due to all the people that actually came up, out and over for it. The party wasn't until Saturday so Friday night was spent in avid dedication to the consumption of all things grape and fermented. And consume we did. In fine fashion. I believe the count the morning after was 9 bottles between roughly 4 people. Which, by my math, and the maths and I were never very tight - taps out at roughly 2.25 bottles per person.

Well played. Well played indeed.

Of course, I have a large family.

Irish.

Catholic.

Drunks by the above snippet.

All things point towards many members of the family. With large family comes the always entertaining family dynamic. There is the crazy uncle from Maine, who along with being socially inept, will talk in an affected Irish brogue every now and then. And he was born in Iowa. There is the uncle who divorced his wife of like, 30 years about 10 years ago and has remarried to a drunk. My parents in all their dysfunctional glory. My aunt who just wants to keep everyone happy. You see how this becomes fodder for the mill. Its like a bloggers dream.

So the stories of the weekend:

• Meghan competing with her mother on Saturday morning to see whose liver would fail first, hers or mine from all the stinking wine.


• The aforementioned drunk step-aunt (is that right?) who was blotto by noon on Saturday -- and we still had to go to the actual birthday party that they drove 700 miles for. She was drinking straight gin out of a water glass that I thought was -- drumroll, water. Seems I was quite wrong.


• The group effort to cook lobster when no one had ever done so. Even the crazy uncle who lives in MAINE was clueless. Although in all fairness, I don't think he can afford lobster in any fashion, even in Maine.

It was as always, a joy to behold and mentally file away. There are a few pics posted on the Flickr account. Link, as always, to the left.

My Aunt's birthday party was great. One of those deals where of the 120 people in the room, I was related to like, 80 of them. And for once, I don't think I was exaggerating.

Then there is the always uplifting mom update. She came up on Thursday so she would have Friday to recover before going to the party on Saturday. She did fairly well on the ride up. Or so I am told. Over the course of the weekend however, my dad and I noticed several things that caused us concerns. Things she was doing herself the week before all the sudden became an issue; showering, getting dressed and even eating. The other thing was her spatial relationship to things. She would poke her fork at something on her plate, but miss it by like 2". The straw that broke the proverbial camels back was on Sunday when she fell. She had been laying down taking a nap, apparently needed to use the bathroom, tried on her own and didn't make it. So after a few intense conversations we decided to call the hospice on Sunday and see if they would move her assessment up to Monday when we got home. I took a few days off work and drove down to KC with them on Monday. Met with the nurse as a family. She was amazing. Really amazing. We now have a hospital bed in the living room and someone will be stopping by daily. I am not sure she is "really" that bad -- all things considered. But she clearly needs 24/7 care and we needed the help.

The gut punch of the weekend was Monday -- which was Patrick's birthday. We are sitting there going through all the hoops with the nurse. At one point, she is talking to my mom and asks her "Susan, is there anything I can do for you at this point?" My mom looks at her and says, "Make it go away" - the nurse replies, "The pain?" To which my mother said, "No, the cancer"

Queue the tears and a sobbing we will go. Lost it on that one.

So into this new phase we go. Somewhat ambivalent, a little scared and didn't think we would be here this quickly. But we are, so deal with it we must.

Sounds very Yoda-esque doesn't it?

Oh, and my parents insane friends built a ramp to our front door while we were gone and cleaned the ever-loving crap out of the house.

So there it is kids. Your update for the day. Enjoy. Ponder.

Now Listening: Passive Aggressive by Nicola Hitchcock

Des Moines Ink Day 2

In all fairness, I am not a small person. I mean, I am small as in short.
I am not small as in petite. Don't get me wrong, we are not talking beached whale or anything, but I could afford to drop 15lbs -- hell, who couldn't? I like to call myself Rubenesque. As in Ruben, the painter, not like a sandwich with sauerkraut.
So, I have curves. My hips and rear end have ample space. I discovered in the last day that on top of my rather curvaceous back side, I now have a very swollen hip courtesy of 2.5 hours under a tattoo needle. So, left hip is now sticking out about 2" more than it used to. Granted this is a temporary situation, and one of my own doing but come on....
The one thing I don't need is a larger ass.

Side work note, I have little saying on my gray cube wall here in Dilbert land that goes something like this:

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not
achieved, and will never achieve, its full potential, that word would be Meetings.

That has never been more true than today.
Additional side note, state fair pics are up on Flickr account. Link is on the left.

Now Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon

Des Moines Ink

Perhaps I am watching too much tattoo centric TV

• Miami Ink
• LA Ink
• Assorted Discovery channel documentaries on the history of tattooing -- yes, I watch them.

But as I was sitting, rather laying on my side last night observing the ins and outs of the local ink shop, I got to thinking, those shows could just as easily be about the Des Moines crowd as any big city. We had the crazy tattooed owner, the other guys (and gals) in the shop throwing snide comments -- and more than a few expletives - around. The local urban flavor just coming in and out of the shop to see what was going on. A random woman that wanted this huge tattoo, right then (all the artists were with clients) and for only $40. I believe the answer was for $40 you can get a heart. A small heart. So we mocked her for the rest of the night.

There was the apprentice -- watching over everything and getting each station cleaned up and ready to go for the next victim, I mean client.
And then of course, us crazy fools who were getting all the work done. There is a weird bond that is instantly created by sitting there watching each other work through the pain of getting a tattoo.

But new ink I wanted, and new ink I got. We had a slight change in the plan. The original intent of this session was to cover up the first one that I ever got. The design I chose, while appropriate for cover up was problematic. It is problematic in an old-school tattoo rule that until last night, I was unaware of.

Animals.

When tattooing animals, the old-school artist would always face the animal so it was pointing out from the body. Now the larger part of this design that I had selected was the front portion of the cat's body. Due to the position of the old tattoo that we were covering up, we would have had to place the cat facing into me. Which Dave was fairly adamant about. At first I was like, not as concerned about that as he was. To which he explained, one -- I can't in good tattoo-artist-faith position it that way and two -- do you really want this cat staring at your ass for the rest of your life?

Sold.

So, we opted to move the design to the other side of my hip. Plan eventually was to get a design on each hip and blend it with my Celtic cross on the small of my back -- so this was not a big deal. I still have to look for something for cover up, but I can work on that.

So my cat from the Book of Kells is now on my hip....

And yes, that is my large gut hanging out, but whatever. So it is done. The new word of the day today is: tender. Clothing, slightly irritating. Seat belt -- ouch. Twisting around in seat, not a good idea. But this is what I wanted so no bitching allowed.

Now Listening: 11:11 by Maria Taylor

Where to begin

So many things to chat about today.
We have the fair, football, new ink, new babies, random hook-ups, contrite owners and a mom update.

Lets start with the fattening one. The Iowa State Fair. Finally made it over to the Eastside of Des Moines on Sunday for the last day of the fair. It was hot. It was fried. It was chock full of agricultural goodness. It was mullet-tastic.
Good trip. Ate tons; corndogs, pork chops, cheese curds, chicken on a stick -- and the guys I was with, ate more than that. Amazing. Either they didn't eat for like, 3 days, or in fact, they have hollow legs. Pictures are forthcoming, need to get them out of the camera.

Football. It has started. Granted it is pre-season, but why oh why couldn't my Bears win against the Colts in February, not last night?? Oh wait, I know, Manning only took snaps for like a -- QUARTER. Nonetheless, the season kick-off is near and I am getting excited. Of course, the Rex Grossman saga continues. Who knows which Rex will show up? Not sure the Chicago faithful will be willing to stand another meltdown at this point. Then again, what would sports broadcasters talk about if not that?

Big day today -- getting new ink. Woo Hoo!. Actually going in to cover up the very first tattoo I ever got. Lesson here kids: don't get a tattoo when you are 19 from a guy that works out of his basement. They tend to not hold up well. That being said, I am headed down to Mid-Air and Ink tonight for some cover up action. Got a killer new design from the Book of Kells that I will be using. You will have to come back for pics of the finished product. Dave down there did my foot a few years back and is an amazing artist. I am super excited. If you are so inclined, always looking for visitors while getting a little ink. I shall be down there starting around 6:30 ish.

Short weekend re-cap (is this post all over the map or what?)
Fair, see above.
Friday night. Oh Friday night. Let me splain' a little. This was the first weekend in like, forever, that I was in town. No driving, no nothing. It will be the last weekend for like another 5 weeks that I am in town. So, I was looking to get some stuff done, have some fun and catch up with some peeps I haven't seen, in what seems like, forever.
Back to Friday.
I worked at the Cafe that night. Told the girls I was working with, I think we should go out after work and grab a drink or two. So we did. And in one of those nights where it was supposed to just be a low-key, few drinks with the girls type of thing -- things got a little crazy. Ran into some guys we knew, next thing I know we are bar hopping and Tara is like, lets do a shot. Right, tequila and I (no matter how good the tequila is) should not hang out. Bygones. So by the 3rd bar, we are having a good ole' time and we run into a guy that Lisa knows. A guy I also know, as we met randomly online like a year and half ago and after meeting realized we had a friend in common. Long story short, we never got together, he started dating someone, I started dating someone and last I had heard, he was engaged. So see him on Friday, yeah, not engaged anymore. We start talking. Fast forward to last call - they kick us all out. I am standing there with Chris and trying to find Lisa and Tara when he leans over and kisses me.
Hm. Me thinks. Rather unexpected. We then decided in our infinite wisdom that we should go to Lisa's house for more fun. Long story short -- too late -- I ended up making out with him in front of Lisa's house. Small reminder what happens to Meghan when she makes out in front of Lisa's house, she ends up dating the boy and then gets her heart broken (see all references to Joe).
I mean, I am 32 years old. At some point, this sort of thing should get a little old hat. Like shouldn't I being meeting people, then going a date or two, then maybe have a kiss? Not making out like a high schooler on your friends front porch? In all fairness, he is the same age. So I didn't feel too bad. And it was just a little make out session. No harm, no foul. I shall keep you posted on any updates that may come out of this situation. I will say this, having not kissed anyone different in quite a while, it was good. Different, but good. Although, I still felt a smidge weird about the whole thing. Which leads me to believe that full fledged dating is still a little ways off for me. Who knows? The saga of my relationships will as always, continue....

Further proof that Des Moines is a small town; a few months back I detailed a little story about a rather geographically challenged sales person in a boutique here in Des Moines. Find the refresher here. It is a story that still makes me chuckle in dis-belief. So over the weekend, I had a comment posted to a subsequent entry from the owner of the boutique explaining the situation in a little more detail. See her comments here. My first thought was, wow, this blog thing is getting out a little bit. Then I realized it is Des Moines and a smart business owner, especially in retail, should be searching for their name in any form. I appreciated the comments and the fact that she acknowledged a not perfect visit to her store. I do believe that we will be visiting again especially since....
DRUM ROLL
Martine is pregnant.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Seems that one new baby wasn't challenge enough. They need two.
So, by all known medical science and a little math, Noah will turn 1 on Feb 26, she is due with #2 on March 9th.
Fate is a crazy bitch sometimes. Super excited for them, although I think it is fair to say that the "holy shit" factor hasn't faded quite yet. So, I am officially in the midst of a baby boom.

From the life affirming to the less than upbeat, mom update.
Was due for chemo on Friday. As I mentioned earlier this month, we (the family) collectively were debating the merits of keeping the chemo schedule. Just didn't jive with any idea of "quality of life". In meeting with the oncologist on Friday, my mom indicated that she did not want to stop. And for the record, she still gets to make the calls. It is her decision. So, Dr. Taylor took a look at all of her vitals, etc. Bottom line; she isn't getting any more chemo, even if she wants it. Dr. Taylor took one look at her overall health and was like, no can do. Your body cannot handle any more chemo. While I was bummed that my mom still wanted to go forward with it, the final outcome was what we wanted. This also means we can start with hospice care. Prior to that the insurance company was not willing to approve hospice while she was still taking chemo. This all means that we are just going to work on keeping her comfortable and go from there. No more crazy medical procedures or invasive crap. Frankly, I am ok with that aspect of it. Seems to me that there comes a point where you just say enough and deal with the outcome. Of course, I say that now. Check back to see if I still feel the same down the road.

So that mammoth of an entry should bring you up to date on the recent happenings and general observations from my neck of the woods.
Now Listening: The Best of Otis Redding

In the category of TOTALLY ridiculous

Today's topic of discussion:
I called my credit card company to see what my balance was. You know the usual, dial an 800 number, enter in 5,000 bits of information, account number, social security, zip code, weight at birth, that sort of thing. And then some lovely psuedo-human voice tells you your current balance, last payment received and merrily we go.
Except yesterday. Yesterday I called, and after going through all the pre-subscribed loopholes got the following message in lieu of my account balance "Please hold while we transfer you to a service representative" Odd, I thinks to myself. So I get transferred, some guy named Mike answers the phone, asks for all the information I have already typed in and then says "How can I help you?" My response was "You tell me, I called for my balance and got forwarded to you." He says, let me look and puts me on hold for a few minutes. He comes back and says -- and this is the part that still kills me -- "Ms. Smith, your account has a temporary hold on it." To which I think more than odd, as I just made a payment. He goes on to explain that the reason my account has a hold on it is because I have made a series of PAYMENTS in excess of $200 over the last few months. My rather dumbfounded response, "so because I am PAYING you the money I have charged, and done so on time and in excess of the minimum amount due, you are putting a hold on my account?" Yes. that is the policy. So in order to remove the hold, I have to get a copy of my last check, on bank letterhead and fax it over to them.
HUH? So, your policy is creating more work for me? I go on to tell him I have every intention of keeping this payment schedule and will in fact, be paying multiple times a month to get this thing paid off. Am I going to have to jump through hoops every time I do this?
No he tells me. This is just a check to make sure everything is on the up and up with my bank. My thought at this point is twofold:
1. Who in the hell died and made the credit card company my quality check/financial advisor as to how I spend my money?
2. I am really sorry that by paying off my debt, you Mr. Giant-Soulless-Money grubbing-Corporation, will not be able to get that extra few bucks in interest off of me.
As was suggested last night, it might be time to actually take advantage of one of those transfer your account for no interest for 6-months offers that seems to fill my mailbox daily.

In the category of not ridiculous, online registration for the Des Moines Komen Race for the Cure has started. Team Save Second Base is available for anyone in the DSM area that is interested in joining the walk. Link is on the left.

Now Listening: The Ray! Soundtrack

Sugar Dixon Shock

That is my stripper name.
At least according to a little email I received yesterday. I want all of you to take a look and let me know what your name will be. Post a comment or shoot me an email.
Hope to see you all at amateur night.
Kidding.
I am kidding.
With a name like "Sugar Dixon Shock" I sound more like a souped up, southern, red-bull like drink than a stripper.

Enjoy.
Now Listening: Color the Small One by Sia


1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:
a = Chesty
b = Fantasia
c = Starr
d = Diamond
e = Montana
f = Angel
g = Sugar
h = Mimi
i = Lola
j = Kitty
k = Roxie
l = Dallas
m = Princess
n = Heidi
o = Bambi
p = Bunny
q = Brandy
r = Sugar
s = Candy
t = Raquelle
u = Sapphire
v = Cinnamon
w = Blaze
x = Trixie
y = Isis
z = Jade

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:
a = Leather
b = Dream
c = Sunny
d = Deep
e = Heaven
f = Tight
g = Shimmer
h = Velvet
i = Lusty
j = Harley
k = Passion
l = Dazzle
m = Dixon
n = Spank
o = Glitter
p = Razor
q = Meadow
r = Glitz
s = Sparkle
t = Sweet
u = Silver
v = Tickle
w = Cherry
x = Hard
y = Night
z = Amber

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = hooter
b = horn
c = tower
d = fire
e = thighs
f = hips
g = side
h = jugs
i = shock
j = cocker
k = brook
l = tush
m = sizzle
n = ridge
o = kiss
p = bomb
q = cream
r = thong
s = heat
t = whip
u = cheeks
v = rock
w = hiney
x = button
y = lick
z = juice

One down, one to go

Went down to KC this weekend to participate in the Race for the Cure in KC with the family.
In a word: HOT.

Freakin' Hot. There is a reason they start the race at 7:30 AM. No way could you do it in that heat any later.

However, heat aside the entire Smith clan participated. Which was a first. We only did the 1 Mile Walk -- between my mom in the wheelchair and my dad's knees there was no way we were doing more. But she had a bunch of her friends turn out as well. All told, there was probably about 20 of us walking.

Big thanks to Brooke for getting some Save Second Base t-shirts made quick for the Smith clan. I wore mine -- the only time I will wear pink. Ever. Again.

Repeat: ever.

For the cause, I sucked it up and threw my innate fashion sense out the window.

Here are a few pics that Courtney took with her cell phone. We have some more coming later in the week. But not downloaded from the respective camera's yet... And I will throw this out there, if you haven't seem my mom in awhile, this might be a smidge shocking.

Mom & Patrick

Yes, that is me in the corner, in pink.

And another of the crowd:

So, all in all, a good weekend. Super quick weekend, but weekend it was.
In a more rambling mode - I have now driven down and back to KC twice in two weeks.
I offer you these little insights from my time on the amazing interstate system of this country of ours

• People who don't know how to use cruise control need to be shot. There is nothing more annoying that someone who is both on your ass and then shooting ahead of you, only to get back on your ass in the course of about 10 minutes. I wanted to scream. And this has happened multiple times in the last two weeks. And I would think, you would be hard pressed to find a car these days that doesn't have cruise on it.
• ON Ramps. Its simple. You should be accelerating while on them. Not slowing down or for the love, STOPPING on the ramp. This problem is only heightened by the fact that the momo's coming in the right hand lane don't have the brain capacity to just GET IN THE LEFT LANE FOR TWO SECONDS. I know the left lane can be scary. Cars going over the speed limit is daunting. But for 200 yards, you can suck it up so I can merge.

And for our weekly good news segment.

Congrats to my cousins, Chris, Kara & Brian. In a single family vacation weekend, there was an engagement (Brian) and a new baby on the way (Chris & Kara)! My aunt called the house over the weekend to let us know, and you could just hear the mile long smile on her. This means 3 new members of the Tefft clan this year. Growing by leaps and bounds.

Now Listening: Give Up by The Postal Service

PS - Added a link to my Flickr account, forgot that I had it. More pics to come.

Finally some GOOD news

Woo Hoo.
Just got a call from my sister. Seems my brother was just at home watching some TV when she and my dad went home for lunch!!
Totally surprised all of us.
Not sure what the deal is -- emergency leave or if he was re-assigned back stateside.
All I know, is at least for now, I don't have to worry about him getting his ass blown to bits in some stupid, ridiculous, war that makes no sense.
Like war EVER makes sense.
And I know my mom has to be thrilled.
Good day.

Now Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon

Stressful Manifestations

Well, it happened. I sorta expected it.
Cold sore time.
I mean, I am sure you all LOVE reading about my herpes. But, what is a girl to do?
They normally show up during one or two times:
1. When I get a really bad sunburn. The UV breaks down the skins ability to fight the virus that causes them. Which is really kinda a bummer. Like it is not enough to be as red as a lobster, you get face fungus.
2. Stress. Normally they hit right after the height of the stressful time.
I got mine today.
This makes me nervous as I don't think we are anywhere near the height of what I have known at this point to be stressful.
For the record, they hurt, itch, and just overall take forever to heal.
And no, I did not get them from any sort of contact issues. They are also genetic. My mom had one for almost every school picture she ever took. Didn't get my first one until finals of my freshman year in college. Frankly, if that was stressful, I don't remember. I just remember not sleeping much.

I bought a new shirt for myself and my sisters today. Check it out here. At first I thought, Hmm. I probably will offend someone. And then reality kicked in and I thought, who gives a rats ass if I offend someone with this? Everything about the way this has happened is offensive. From the lack of medical ability to cure it to the every day crap my mom has to go through. So I will wear it proudly.

I did see my mom this weekend. Life at the Smith household has gotten interesting. What amazes me the most is how old she is looking. Like in the course of 2 months, she has gone from my mom to a slightly younger version of my grandma. And it blows.
My parents house is in no way, shape or form designed for someone that is not 100% mobile and healthy. This has translated into having to keep an eye on her when she goes up and down the stairs. And in the shower. And getting in and out of bed. And she isn't very good at staying still. So, that is a constant battle.
The pain meds keep her pretty loopy when she is taking them. Which is almost daily at this point.
We are also re-evaluating the plan to do one more round of chemo. That was being done to help stretch time at this point and for whatever pain management it could provide. Frankly, as it is is chemo, the side affects at this point are just not in-line with anything we consider "quality of life". So my parents are going to talk to the oncologist.
On the plus side -- we are planning a 60th birthday party for her. Current invitee list is somewhere in the neighborhood of 225 people. October 13th. Mark your calendars.
Equally on the upside is how amazing my parents friends have been. I cannot use the word thank you enough. It seems as inadequate as saying this sucks. But it is all you can do. They have made this a much easier proposition.

And for the REALLY good news of the day -- providing you didn't get depressed and stop reading. Martine asked me last night to be the godmother for little Noah!!!! Totally thrilled. Of course, my emotions are hanging by a thread right now and I started crying right there in the restaurant. But -- who cares?? Little munchkin is as cute as can be and I am honored. There are babies everywhere in my life now -- kinda getting used to them :)

Now Listening: A guilty pleasure mix that I cannot even admit to publicly :)

Really Random Ramblings

Illiteration. How I love it.

I saw a license plate today on the way to work that read "IAMNDET". Which I read as " I am in debt". Now the ironic part, or perhaps the sad part, is that it was attached to a huge, tricked out, I am guessing 06/07, Yukon. Which sorta begs the question, of course you are in debt, you spent a small fortune on a gas guzzling mode of transportation. Between your car payment and filling up its no mystery why you are in debt. And lastly, why on EARTH would you put that on your license plate? Are you proud of it? Asking for donations? I dunno on that one.



Another driving one. I saw the below car while at a stop light on my way back from lunch. I couldn't help it. There was not just one yellow ribbon, or just one american flag ribbon. No, this was Patriotism (and the caps are on purpose). Count them.... EIGHT ribbons. They are patriotic times EIGHT. Not sure what the magical purpose of eight is, other than it allows them to keep even the number of ribbons on either side of the Chevy emblem, but I couldn't resist snapping a shot of that one:



I went and saw Hairspray last night. Super fun movie. Laughed a lot. If you see it, watch for the John Waters and Rikki Lake cameos. They are quick.

So I just moved from being a contractor to a Full Time Employee at my job. That was the plan all along, I was hired with the consulting firm on a 6-month, contract-to-hire. All went to plan. Now, as the above sentence would indicate, I have been here 6 months. As part on the hiring process, I was required to attend a day and a half of corporate training. That included, a tour of the building, a 45 minute tutorial on the phone system and a hour session on how to treat your co-workers.
Let me repeat: A BUILDING TOUR AND A PHONE TUTORIAL WHEN I HAD BEEN HERE 6 MONTHS.
Frankly, I think a hot poker to the eye or bamboo splinters under my fingernails would have been less painful.

And my last little nugget of insight/bitching. I have a rose bush in my front yard. A couple of things to consider here. I consider most of my gardening/yard work attempts to be a total roll of the dice. I am never sure if they will work, if I am doing it right or what the end result will be. I do know that I have found that I have enjoyed learning to putz around in the yard. Now, I have never had a rose bush. I have been led to believe that they are very high maintenance plants. This is counter to my idea of gardening. But, being a diligent person, I started looking into to how to care for said bush. This effort only began AFTER I had blooms on the darn thing. All of those ultimately died, and it seemed weird to me that no new ones were blooming. I was told recently that they really respond well to lots of water. So I have been diligently watering my rose bush -- and surprise, I started to see a whole new set of buds coming in. Two of them bloomed in the last few days and I was rather pleased. Last night as I was waiting to get picked up for the movie, I was doing a little weeding around the bush and just generally feeling good about my green-thumb, rose bush progress. This morning, I was taking out the garbage turned around and my roses were gone. Someone had taken them off the bush. There were only 2 of them, its not like I wouldn't notice. Rude. Just rude. Here I am trying to make the yard look nice, and someone just decided that my little pink roses needed to be theirs. Bastards.

I am heading home this weekend. Should have a better idea of what is really going on after that. I am sure I will have more to report upon my return.

Now Listening: Who Is Jill Scott? by Jill Scott (odd, I know)

THREE, TWO, ONE ..... GLOW!!!!

I consider myself somewhat of a purveyor of cultural events. Ok, I haven't done the Running of the Bulls in Pamploma or attended Carnivale in Rio - but they are on the list.
I do try and get to some of the big ones, May Day parade in Moscow, St. Patricks Day in Chicago, The Iowa State Fair (yes, it counts), The Sturgis Motorcycle rally and then there are the smaller ones....
Like, the National Balloon Classic in Indianola.
Now, not having grown up in Iowa, I was unaware of the importance of this particular event. This is a mistake I shall not make again. I received an invite from my friends Kim & Jason the other night. I thought, sure some hot air balloons, that would be cool. Get me out of the house.
So I went.

Well, it is quite the event. And I mean that sincerely. People in Indianola take their ballooning VERY seriously. There is a museum, the whole "classic" event and everything in between. I did find out that the National Balloon competition used to be held here in good ole' flyover country. But, at some point, moved to Albuquerque. And I am fairly sure the locals are still not happy about it.
Last night was the Night Glow event. I was made aware of this by Tim & Bob -- the incredibly enthusiastic men who were providing color commentary for the ballooning.
Yes, color commentary for hot air balloons. And they were enthusiastic. Like Bob Costas on crack in a small town in Iowa, sniffing too much ethanol. The whole intention of the "Night Glow" as you may surmise, is to see the balloons at night, glowing.
Seems pretty obvious.
Well, they are on the ground when they glow not, in the air, like I was hoping for. More people need to be tuned into MY needs for Pete's sake.
Got sidetracked, sorry.
Tim & Bob were big fans of ensuring that group participation was the name of the game. Every time they wanted a coordinated glow they would shout into their microphones, "3, 2, 1...Glow" and viola. You have night glow. Like this:

Now, I took that one with my cell phone camera, so no commentary on my photographic ability. There were many of said ideal "Kodak Moments" -- but I left the camera at home like a smart girl. So did Nate & Martine. However, I give them a mulligan on that one, because they had all the baby stuff -- and well, the baby, to get out there. Which they did.
So there you go. Another one I can cross off of the 1,000 Things To Do Before You Die list. And there really is a book out there for that.
At least, I hope this one is on there.


So there it is. Another little cultural nugget hiding out here in Iowa.
On another note, I have sent out my initial email to everyone I can think of that is local, or close to local to participate in the annual Komen Race for the Cure. We do it every year, but this year I actually got slightly organized and sent out something well in advance.
The Team theme this year....
**drumroll**
Save Second Base

The t-shirts alone will make it worth it. I added a link on the side with the local Komen DSM website. Online registration hasn't opened yet, but I will keep everyone posted.

Now Listening: Night Ripper by Girl Talk