Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The Name Game
Okay, I hope this works. I just visited a friend's blogspot, and she had posted her name, and what it meant. Since I am feeling unoriginal today (it's raining here) I am going to plagiarize. I am pretty sure she won't mind.
| DAWN | ||
|---|---|---|
| D | is for | Dazzling |
| A | is for | Ambitious |
| W | is for | Worldly |
| N | is for | Natural |
Dazzling, well, they sure picked the wrong day for that, but okay. Definitely not feeling ambitious today either. I didn't think that being worldly was necessarily a good thing. (Dad, if you read this, they are lying! They don't know me!) Hmm, not sure how I feel about being natural either. Oh well, there you have it. Re-affirmation that I don't like my name. From now on, just call me Gorgeous.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Weekend from H-E Double Hockeysticks!
This weekend Jerry and I travelled up to Chicago to attend Jerry's Gram's memorial service. This was not a very pleasant experience on so many levels.
The memorial service was very short, but I managed to cry a new lake for Chicago. I gave Lake Michigan a run for its money.
All of Jerry's family on his father's side was there, which is chaotic at best. I will not say very much about it. I was once told that if I don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all. Very wise.
I will share with you my happiest moment from this. Jerry's grandmother used to make a crab dip, which she would place in the middle of a very nice plate. (I think the plate, or platter, was crystal.) Anywhoo, she would put the dip in this bowl every single time. Well, the bowl turned out to be an ashtray, but a very nice ashtray. It was also crystal, and it was very pretty. Whenever I saw it, I would smile to myself. That is just such a cute thing to do.
I am now the proud owner of the crab dip bowl. I hope that one day my grandchild will bring his wife to enjoy my dip, and smile on the inside because it is in an ashtray.
In memory of Angeline Strunc. May you enjoy your time with the Big Guy until we get there. We love you.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Trauma
Okay, so yesterday I almost died. I was out in the parking garage at work, and getting ready to drive over to my parents. I got into my car, and reach over to close the door, when I see it. SPIDER. Not a cute little Charlotte's Web spider. This thing was big, hairy, black with white stripes, and I could tell he wanted to kill me.
My solution: Slam the door shut in hopes of shaking him off, and then in case that didn't work, drive like a maniac through town and hoping the wind does its job.
Fast forward to my drive home from work. (Can you hear the Jaws music playing?) So, I'm cruising along, on the HIGHWAY, and I get off at my exit. This is when Killer Spider makes his reappearance. On my dashboard. So I swerve my way over to the side, and start to pray. Hard. Mr. Killer Spider walks along my dashboard, and makes his way over to my window. I roll the window all the way down, and he makes it halfway across. I give him a little help out of my car by blowing him out.
Once again, I drive like a maniac with him perched to the side of the car. Oh, but get this, he is not happy to be outside, because he keeps looking at me through the window and scissoring his pinchers together. I know what he wants to do with me. I am being held hostage in my own car.
So then he thinks that he will be smart, and go hide right behind my door and wait. Well, fortunately for me Mr. Killer Spider was too big to hide. I could still see him with my side view mirror.
So then begins more praying, but this time for things that I have never prayed for before. Example: I am speeding atrociously in hopes that a policeman will pull me over and save me from Mr. Killer Spider. But NOOOO! There were no police around. Of course not.
I have to resort to extreme measures now. I pick up my cell phone and call my husband. While doing this I know he will taunt me. He does. But I don't care, because I need help. By the time I finish explaining the situation to him, I am almost crying.
Jerry's Mission: To come out when I get home and remove Mr. Killer Spider from my car so he doesn't jump in and get me when I open the door.
I am happy to say that after all of this, I am alive and well. Part of my well being is due to the fact that Mr. Killer Spider is no more. He took a ride in the toilet, courtesy of my husband.
Moral of the story: My husband's White Knight status turned a little gray for taunting me about my fear of spiders, but he is still the best rescuer a girl could ask for.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
The Perfect Lipstick
Hello. I am desperately searching for the perfect lipstick. See, I never wear lipstick for many reasons. I just stick to the good ole reliable ChapStick. Which is nice, if you're 10.
So anyway, I have tried for several years to be a grown woman, and actually wear lipstick. I hate, no wait, not emphatic enough, HATE lipstick. It gives me fish lips. It dries out on my lips in little balls. It ends up all over my teeth. It makes my lips peel. Okay, I have about a million reasons for hating lipstick, so I will stop.
But, once again, I have begun The Perfect Lipstick quest. Have you been on one of these? Similar to searching for the Holy Grail, only even harder to find. This time, the quest brought me to lip stains, or lip dyes.
So now, I am trying this lipgloss/stain by NARS, and so far, so good. Sort of. Plusses= I do not get that bally peely thingie from it so far, and it does last quite a while. Minuses= My hair has a magnetic attraction to my lips all of a sudden, but I think this is a problem suffered by all lipstick wearers with long hair, not just me. I have not worn lipstick in so long (read, ever) that I still feel like I have fish lips.
In case you don't know what fish lips are (to me), it means that my lips are so accentuated by the color of the lipstick that they stick out. Everyone else assures me that I am fine.
So wish me luck. And if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.
Getting to Know Me! (And My Animals)
Hey y'all!
Here is my recent life story. Just so you know who (whom?) you are reading about a little better. My name is Dawn, and I work for my parents. (Hey, that may sound sad to you, but at least I don't still LIVE with them!) But I am changing my career to Professional Slacker starting later this summer. I finally get to achieve my dream! Professional Slackers rock!
I am also married to my best friend, which is awesome. I mostly grew up as an only child, so I never had the opportunity to administer Indian Burns and Noogies. I am now able to do this at will, and he has no recourse. It is awesome, because he has no one to tattle to! But seriously, we have been married for about a year and a half, and we are having a blast! We love to play games, be it video games, board games, card games, or the name game. (Ha Ha!)
I am an animal lover. Jerry (my husband) merely liked animals when he met me, and reluctantly agreed to get a cat. We are now the proud owners of 3 cats, 1 dog, and 1 snake. My dad tried to warn him that marrying me would be almost the same as marrying a zoo, but Jerry didn't listen.
If you are not an animal lover like me, you may want to skip this next section.
Garfield is our oldest cat. He is orange and white with orange eyes. We picked him up in a friend's neighborhood. I am still not sure if he was a stray or not, but if he wasn't, I still do not regret our decision to take him. He was dirty, and skinny (we could see his ribs), and he wasn't fixed. Well, we took care of all of that. His nickname is Poppa, because he kind of watches over our other animals and he has taught them everything he knows.
Next is Madison. She is an abyssinian. If you like affectionate cats, you definitely want to check this breed out. She is my little princess girl. She is a reddy-brown color, with a little white patch on her neck, and she has green eyes. She is pretty small for a cat, but this is not unusual for her breed. We call her Maddy for short, or Maddy-Bo-Baddy for long. She likes to lay on my chest and receive belly rubs. When she gets extremely happy, she will drool. She does not put up with the shenanigans that the rest get into. She is too dignified for that, which is another reason that she is Princess Maddy.
Next comes K.C. He is our snake. He is a ball python, and he is very pretty. One of his markings looks like a dolphin, and that is how I knew that he was meant to be mine! I love dolphins. Anyway, how we got K.C. is quite a funny story. Jerry and I were driving to this large mall that we hadn't been to before, because he was going to buy me a new purse. (I LOVE new purses.) When we got there we went in through an entrance that had a reptile shop. One of the girls that worked in the shop was outside with a huge albino python wrapped around her shoulders. I got really excited and went right up to her, and Jerry grudgingly followed me. (He didn't know that I liked snakes, and I didn't know he was slightly scared of them at this point.) So I was coo-ing over this snake, and Jerry was laughing nervously. Well, what happens next girls and boys, should be taken as a lesson. He (not quite in these words) dared me to forget about getting a purse and getting a snake instead. He never thought that I would take this seriously, and he was certain that we would be walking out with a new purse. How wrong he was. So, the snakes full name is K.C. B. Snake. Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
Now we come to Simon, our siamese cat. (I know, Simon the Siamese, how original right? He is very beautiful, but very clumsy. He has turned into a really big cat, and he tries to do the same things that he could do when he was kitten sized. He is also a big love, but he wants love when it is inconvenient. Like right before we fall asleep, anytime in the middle of the night, when we are stumbling around in the morning, or when we are in the bathroom. If we do not meet at least one of these conditions, he does not want anything to do with us. It is funny when we try to force love on him. He shimmies his body so our hands cannot actually touch him.
Last, but not least is Zoe, our dog. She is a miniature pinscher. She is our drama queen, and she is a very good actress. There have been a couple of times that we thought she needed to go to the vet because she was sick, but she was just faking us out to get more attention. She gets very jealous when we pay attention to the other animals, to the point that we have to take them into different rooms and close the door so she won't get mad. She is a daddy's girl, because mommy actually disciplines her when she is bad. With daddy, she just gives the big brown eyes and a little tail wiggle, and everything is fine!
And that my friends, is it. I never thought that I could have too many animals, but now I know that is not true. I love every one of them, but it is going to be a long long time before we get any more!
Okay, so I guess this isn't a lot about me really, but my animals are definitely a major part of my life!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
How I Got My Screen Name
So, my friend Candice and I ran around all the time calling each other "Tools." Some nice good innocent fun. Until one day my parents sat me down, and we had a 'talk.' :( 'Talks' with the 'rents are scary. Very scary. This particular 'talk' involved my usage of the word "Tool."
Apparently a Tool is a very bad thing, involving body parts that should not be bandied about in public. Especially distressing to my parents is the fact that saying "Tool" came as naturally to me as saying "The" does.
Now please let me defend myself and Candice here. Candice and I were under the impression that "Tool" meant stupid. Okay, so that sounds pretty bad too, but mostly we were referring to ourselves. I promise. So we had reached the upper echelons of "Tooldom," but my parents put the brakes on that.
Fast forward to my trip to South Africa. (Yes, I went to SA, it was awesome, maybe I will talk about it some other time.) Anyway, I was speaking with one SA'er, and the topic of "Tools" came up. He was unfamiliar with the meaning of this term, so I happily filled him in on our interpretation of it. (Not my parents', they have such dirty minds! ;) ) He said "oh, you mean "Planks"? Planks?????
Apparently, this is how the SA culture refers to "Tool"-like people. So, to appease my parents, and to throw everyone else off (in the US anyway), Candice and I now refer to ourselves as "Planks." And I am the Plankiest!
1st Blog!
So, I am now posting my first blog. Woo hoo! I am taking a little bricky-break from listening to biology on audio CD.
I have been inspired to blog by Miss Am-Erica. I will have to be sure to e-mail her of this amazing achievement, and also so she can come check it out and receive her props. I will not have pictures, because I am still too computer illiterate for that, so I will have to paint with my words.
See? I'm doing it already! How poetic was that?
Okay, well, now I have to go and get a life that I can blog about!