Thursday, January 24, 2008

Maybe it should have been 101 Text Messages

Or Dalmatians, I mean.
I am referring to this little blurb in the Juice that was pointed out to me last night (thanks Carissa). I noticed a few things about this picture -- it was in a bar -- the Royal Mile to be exact and about 3 other people in the segment are the group that Joe normally drinks with.
And for the record, his favorite Disney movie -- at least what he told me, was The Fox and the Hound.
Or does this just prove that he has a thing for redheads?
Hm.
Maybe we are on to something with that one.

Now Listening: Icky Thump by The White Stripes

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

It was like a movie

When the red truck came FLYING by me last night on the interstate, followed shortly by 3 cop cars, and 4 or 5 more that eventually came behind them. AND the cop cars that came onto the interstate from the various on-ramps that I passed.
I was just cruising along at 60 MPH like a good girl when all this happened. A quick check of the paper this morning confirmed my experience.
Looks like it was an official car chase in Des Moines.

In other news, I was a good civic minded citizen last night and got an after hours tour of the capital courtesy of my friend Liz. And her friend Pete. Our capital is actually pretty cool. Got to see the governors office, the whole she-bang. Pictures will be added to the Flickr site sometime this week.
I am happy to report that I have not had any text messages since Sunday. But we are running a usual 3-5 day lag between, so stay tuned.

Now Listening: Duncan Sheik by Duncan Sheik

Monday, January 21, 2008

New Land Speed Record

For drunk texting.
Round II.
In the course of almost exactly 2 hours -- 12:53 AM to 2:59 AM, I was the intended recipient of 39 text messages.

So to break down the text math for you kids -- which is an odd combo of new math and caucus math....
Between Thursday night and Sunday night, I got 68 messages in 4 days (from one person). Which would average out to 17 a day -- not horrible. However, when we add up the hours in which they were actually sent, it is 17 AN HOUR. Roughly one every 3.5 minutes.
By a drunk person.
It's impressive if you look at it as just a numbers game.
Ridiculous if you are on the receiving end of them.

I will say, that after about the 3 or 4th one last night, I went and dug my old alarm clock out of the study, set it ( i normally use my cell phone) and turned the phone off. So I did manage to get some sleep. Of course, the alarm clock on the cell allows you to set up to 5 alarms, so I always have a back up one set.
The old school alarm clock does not have this lovely feature, so I overslept a little today -- only 25 minutes, nothing too bad.
I have more to update, but much to do at work and felt the need to share this one with you ASAP ---

Now Listening: Riot on an Empty Street by Kings of Convenience

Friday, January 18, 2008

Twenty Nine Times

You know that scene in Ferris Buellers Day Off where the principal is like.... "9 Times, NIIIINE times" and it has that weird echo-y feel to it.
Ok - do that for 29 TIIIMES.
That is how many text messages I received from Joe last night between the hours of 12:15 and 2:30 this morning.
I rock.
Apparently, ignoring someone makes them want to talk to you more.
I am not really sure I have anything to say other than, TWENTY NIIIINE TIMMMES.
Jeebus.

Now Listening: Ill Communications by The Beastie Boys

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Writers Strike?!?!?!?

Not for this girl. I mean, yes -- the daily show is not THE daily show but A daily show. A great nod to the fact that this current version is not the same ole' stuff and that Jon really didn't want to go back to work.
At least that is my take.
The real joy has manifested itself over the last few days in the course of two very different and very WRONG tv shows.
I can't help it.
I am addicted.
I think there is something in the tv transmission that has altered my brain waves.
Perhaps an old school turn back to subliminal messages or something.
And what, ask the screaming masses, have you been killing brain cells with if not wine and other assorted adult beverages?
Don't fret little ones, plenty of brain cells have been sacrificed in the name of -- my social life, but I will get to that in bit.
This currently guilty pleasure stems from two of tv's finest offerings....
Rock of Love II
and
American Idol.

I mean, where do you start?
Lets go for the obvious one.
Its sluttier. Trashier. Big-boobier. More chick on chick action. Drunker. Tattoo-ier. More body piercing filled.
Its a 40 year old former hair band guy claiming that he is looking for true love amongst a bunch of strippers. 20 year old strippers. And I don't exaggerate. He has a stripper pole IN THE LIVING ROOM. So, I mean its not like we are hiding the fact that exotic dancers are everywhere.
It is a train wreck. And I can't wait to see how it plays out. 15 women. 15 weeks. It speaks to me.
It's actually shouting "run away!! now! Fast as you can!!"
But like a train wreck, can't really get there from here.

Which leads me to ridiculous show #2 -- American Idol.
A few things on this topic. I disavowed all things AI for 5 years. FIVE YEARS. It meant nothing to me. I would catch the embarrassing moments on the ads and that was enough for me, thanks very much.
Well, two years ago -- almost exactly -- my mom had some major surgery on her back. Off-shoot of the cancer. She was in a neck to waist brace, zero mobility, the whole thing. So, I took a week, worked from our KC office and was hanging out in the house at night helping out. And low and behold, my mother was a AI fan. And she insisted on watching it. This was well into about 1/2 of the season at this point. For those of you that don't know, it shows two nights a week. So not only did I get an introduction, but I got a double dose.
And I was hooked. By the time I got home the following week, well I had to see who got kicked off, duh.
And then there was last season -- and it wasn't even that good from what I have been told. I mean, we had Sanjaya and that whole train wreck. The NICEST girl in rock -- Melinda Doolittle (BTW, what did ever happen to her?) and then the queen of bubble gum -- Jordin Sparks.
And this season is off to a banging start. There was the guy dressed as Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi that actually went and got his chest waxed on Paula's advice. The other dude that sang so low and horrible that Paula (the nice one or the crack head, depends on the day) and Randy were laughing at him.
It was just too much. AND, its on again tomorrow. Oh sweet relief.

What else? Had the sisters up here for the weekend. Took good care of them -- Christmas presents abounded -- ok, really late, but hey. Dinner, drinks, more hennessey shots, drinks and did I mention drinks? Pictures forthcoming.
I think I may need detox this week. I was a little crazy last week. Need to curb that just a smidge.
And overheard in a dressing room in west des moines this weekend:
"No, these pants are too big"
Sounds of friend peeking in room...
"Yep, you are swimming"
Enter perky retail-type
" Can I get another size for you?
"Yeah -- these TWO'S are too big, do you have a zero?"
I threw up in my mouth.

So there was that.
I am inching ever closer to re-entering the dating world, and possibly the online dating world.
This has me a little freaked as a quick perusal of match.com had some people I know on there -- yes, Des Moines is in fact a small town and some of the same people that I saw out there two years ago!!
Eek.
Stay tuned.
Alrighty then, Daily Show "A" or "The" is starting soon.
late.

Now Listening: Frank by Amy Winehouse

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Thank you for smoking.

Outkast to The Samples
White Stripes to Nina Simone
Jill Scott to Medinski, Martin & Wood
That is the crazy, random glory of the iPod shuffle. As Mike said, you kick into shuffle and you get to hear songs you didn't even know you had.

My brain hurts today. Been one of those days where you are go, go, go and it didn't help that I was out until 11:30 last night.
Which in and of itself was not bad. I was good, didn't drink that much. Wasn't out TOO late for a school night -- but man oh man, the smoke.
For the record, Des Moines is NOT a non-smoking city. Yet. I stress the yet. I really hope either the state congress or the city do something.
Now, I have had several heated arguments with people on both sides of this issue.
And yes, there ARE non-smoking establishments in town, its just that I wasn't at one of them last night and I knew that it was smoking. But it wasn't my choice. For whatever reason, last night was a really bad night, maybe the smoke eater was broken but man,
I showered when I got home.
I think my coat was still smoking this morning -- got drenched in Fa breeze and I had to wear another one to work.
I woke up this morning and looked like I had shot heroin into my eyeballs directly they were so bloodshot from watering all night.
Those things to me smack of a problem.
Aside from the fact that I happen to think that smoking is gross, expensive, gross, horrible for you, gross and not great for others around you, I don't care what you do.
But when New York City, the whole state of California -- for pete's sake the IRISH, are non-smoking, then maybe, just maybe it is time to think about making a change.
**steps off soapbox**

Moving on. I think I saw Gary in line at the drive thru at the coffee shop this morning. Suffice it to say, I didn't lay on the horn and try and flag him down. Then I got to thinking, this is MY coffee shop. Do I have to share it? It's not like in a normal break up where you get to divvy up various spots around town. He just moved here, so I have to expect it. Especially since he moved in about 10 blocks from me.
Grr.

Alrighty, it is getting late. I have some work to finish, but I just needed to take a break

Now Listening: Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Ripping the night away

I was all excited about the new iPod for Christmas. And I still am, please don't get confused about that.
But trying to get the CD collection ripped is taking a butt-load of time. It's complicated. I have duplicates, CD's that skip, compilations that take forever to manually create.
I know, woe is me. Really, hard life meghan, but hey -- all in the name of good music.
I should be doing laundry and working on the book club book for this month.
Details.
Sorta keeping an eye on the kids out East -- you know who you are New Hampshire to see if they feel the same way as us ole' Iowa folks when it comes to our next president.

FINALLY got all the pics from Christmas, New Years and the caucus uploaded to the Flickr site.
So check those out.
In other news, I am pleased to report that I haven't done a single thing concerning my New Years resolutions.
Which makes 08' off to a great start.
Really, why set goals? Then you are only disappointed and completely depressed when you realize how truly not ambitious you are ... not.
Why set yourself up for that?
I do need to get on that. But joining a gym ( i know, how cliche) just takes time. And at the end of the work day, its the last thing I am interested in. But my large ass needs to get a little smaller, so its time to Suck It Up!!
Stay tuned on that one.

Now Listening: Hot Fuss by The Killers

Monday, January 07, 2008

The Last Hold-Out

The unthinkable has happened.
really.
And, no I didn't wake up and lose, like 35 lbs overnight. THAT would be unthinkable.
And no, I didn't meet the man of my dreams either.
Ok, so in reality there are many unthinkable events in my life.
But this one is one that we have all been holding our breath for....
Heather and Sebastian got engaged.
WOO HOO!!
I say this is unthinkable not because they shouldn't be together (they should) or that they haven't talked about this (they have, at some length) but because Heather gets all weirded out by the idea of marriage.
Sebastian's power of persuasion must be great :)
So huge congrats to the two of them. I am just thrilled for them. And in other news, she has asked me to be her maid of honor, and I accepted.
The above statement about dropping 35 lbs has just gotten a lot more serious.
Good times.

Now Listening: In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson

Friday, January 04, 2008

I came, I slipped, I caucused....

Wow.

Last night was crazy. From the amount of people to the media EVERYWHERE, it was a circus.
So a quick run down of the night.
Martine and I met up to grab a little snix-snack before the big caucus event. Made it over to the middle school where we were slated to go and the place was packed. 2 precincts were using the same building so there was 4 caucuses going on at the same time (2 precincts, Donkey & Elephant). Parked like 3 blocks away and Martine almost biffed it on the sidewalk, and I almost made it worse trying to keep her from biffing it. Seems they were all over traffic control but had failed at sidewalk control. Packed snow, icy patches and a 7 month pregnant woman don't mix well.
But she was fine. No permanent damage. Made our way up to the school to see the big CNN bus parked out front. And walked into organized chaos. A plasma screen that CNN had set up with feeds from each of the 4 caucus rooms. Lines everywhere people shouting about where to go and people in costumes. Seriously.





I still don't understand what this guy was about. And there was another guy in a purple monkey suit. Martine figured he was supposed to be George W. Finally made it up to the sign in table. All the while mocking the fact that the lines for the democratic room were almost out the door and the peeps at the republican table were sitting there looking bored as no one was registering for their caucus. I had to mock them a little. At least to the other people waiting in line with me.

Make it into the cafeteria, which was where our precinct was meeting. People everywhere, more media, random observers running around with hand-held cameras capturing the whole thing for YouTube. Nutso. For those of you that don't know caucusing is not really like voting. Its more like, well, the opposite of voting. You sit in areas of the room for your candidate out in the open and there are two round of counting. Each precinct has a pre-set number of delegates that you can send to the county caucus, which then has a number for the state caucus, which then determines who gets the votes at the convention later in the year. We had 7 delegates. There were like, 8(?) candidates and based on the number of registered people they work out how many people at a minimum need to affiliate with a given candidate to be viable -- meaning to get at least one of the delegates.
Sounds cool right? To a degree it is. But, like much of government, it consisted of a lot of sitting around. A lot. Making random conversation with the people around you -- who in theory are your neighbors because it is all based on your home address. And in some cases, you get interviewed by the CBS affiliate out of SALT LAKE CITY???
Yep, shout out to my peeps in Utah. I am sure some production assistant told the guy the wrong room and he was looking for Mitt supporters, but whatever.
After the first round, Biden, Richardson, Kucinich and Gravel were not viable. So then the other groups went around trying to court them to their side to get additional delegates.
At the end of the night -- we got there at about 6:15 and left about 9 -- the final tally for the Democratic Caucus Precinct 71 was 3 for Obama, 2 for Clinton, 1 for Edwards and 1 for Richardson.
At that point, we took off. Neither Martine or I was interested in getting nominated to be a delegate at the county caucus. Dropped Martine off and headed to meet up with some peeps for some post-caucus rallys.
We were going to try and hit Hillary, but by the time we got everyone together, she had already started her speech on TV, looking pissed BTW. So we headed over to the Obama rally.
In a word, packed.
In another word, hot
And in a third word, stinky. My God, when we finally found a place that was close, relatively speaking of course, it happened to be by this kid that just reeked of BO.
G-R-O-S-S
We did get to see Obama give his speech. He really is a dynamic speaker. Place went crazy for him. Someone reported seeing Scarlett Johnanson there, but never confirmed. Managed to get felt up by not one, but two secret service guys as we were trying to get up front for some pictures. And of course, I had left my camera at home, so all my pics (they will be uploaded tonight or tomorrow) are with my cell phone, so be kind.
And ps to the Secret Service -- I know that you had a hell of a job on your hands and the logistics of keeping people safe in an environment like that has to be insane, but do you have to be assholes about it? And for the record, by felt up, I mean elbowed and pushed around. I wanted to yank those little curly ear pieces right out just to spite them.
Did have a celebrity sighting -- Bobby Cannavale. Took me a minute to recognize him, but I did and Liz got a picture with him.
What for else? All in all, a good night.
Like I said, I will get pics out over the weekend. And be kind, again -- it was a cell phone taking the pics. :)

Now Listening: Tourist by St. Germain

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Rockin' Out with My Caucus Out

In case you have been hiding under a very large rock, tonight is caucus night here in Iowa.
And being the civic minded person that I am, I will be participating. Still slightly on the fence, so going to see how things go.
It's crazy. Once every four years we become the center of the political universe. Only this time of year do I get emails/text messages from friends telling me they have met a presidential candidate, heckled another candidate in public, been interviewed for CNN and/or Fox and so on.
Celebrity sightings, signs everywhere, national media all over the place.
It is actually quite cool.
Now, the constant barrage of political ads and campaigning for the last 6 months has gradually been escalating. And frankly, I hope that it will die down for a little while until the conventions and then pick back up before November.
So, look for me on TV tonight -- we are planning on hitting a few of the post-caucus events and checking out the scene!!

Now Listening: A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

I think I drowned Baby New Year in vodka

And I hope it doesn't have long term affects on either him or me. Or 2008 for that matter.
Happy New Year a few days late.
I took the days between Christmas and New Years off, so aside from ripping CD's onto my computer, I wasn't online all that much.
08' is off with a bang. Or a pop really. Spent most of yesterday with Lisa and Tara lamenting our fairly hungover selves. And as for the resolutions, well given that we ordered pizza for lunch, lets just say those started today. There is a reason I don't drink vodka that often. But Monday night, it was tasting pretty darn good. And at least it was good vodka. Yesterday would have REALLY sucked if it hadn't been.
Gary has moved to Des Moines. At least that is what his voice mails have said. I just haven't had the chance to call him back yet. He was surprisingly quiet over the holidays, which was pretty nice actually. Still not sure how all this is going to play out. I just know this; I have people that I consider really good friends that I see maybe 2 or 3 times a month because of our schedules, so I don't see myself dropping everything just to hang with him. Told him as much.
He thinks I am avoiding dealing with my mom by being uber-social.
I politely explained to him that I had a busy life before my mom got sick, while she was sick and don't see any reason why that would change now that she is gone. And then reminded him that --as he has told me numerous times -- everyone deals with this differently. So he needs to chillax.
Really.
I don't need some pseudo-shrink who's ulterior motives are getting into my pants telling me how to deal.
As for the other boy - don't even feel like going there today. Let's just say that he is one of my resolutions.
Other than that, not much to report. Working through the email jail that I got myself into while out of the office.
Oh, congrats go out to Klas and Nikki, they got engaged over the holiday.
I have some pictures from the holiday, will get those posted tonight or tomorrow.

Now Listening: Automatic for the People by R.E.M.