I had the strangest dream the other night. Lucky for you I don't remember all of the details, or you'd have to read about it in chapters! However, I do remember the couple of things about the dream that made it so strange:

A) The dream kept repeating itself, by which I mean the "story" in my dream would play out and then start again, over and over. It wasn't exactly the same every time, but it was more like I'd go through it and each time it would repeat itself, I learned something new that I used to change something the next time it started over. Groundhog Day Dream! :)

B) I was dead. Yup, I was an animated corpse. It wasn't bad at first, but each time the "story" cycled around again, I'd be in a worse state of decay. It didn't have anything to do with the actual dream, or affect it in any way, but I just remember looking at my arms and thinking "well, this is kind of gross!" I was a highly-functioning dead person.

I always wonder if my dreams mean anything, and sometimes I believe they do. I just don't like to think about what THIS kind of dream signifies! Oh, and in case you are curious, it wasn't even a "Chocolate Nightmare" like the others I've had. This time it was a "Praline Nightmare." Steve bought me one of those real, southern, cookie-sized pralines while we were in New Orleans and I didn't get around to eating it until after we got home. I'm guessing I shouldn't eat sweets before going to bed from now on!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I am sunburnt! Do you know what that means? I actually went outside! :) Saturday, Steve and I spent a great deal of the day doing outside work. We mowed the lawn, washed my car (and I had forgotten what color Lois actually is under the dirt) and pressure washed the sidewalk. I had sprayed on some sunblock before we went outside, but I apparently missed some spots because my shoulders are red. It's funny to see me with tan lines. I have that lily-white, southern belle skin and all, you know. :) It was actually a nice day. We worked outside, then we grilled some tuna and veggies on the iron giant. The one lone spot of not-so-greatness was that I apparently got very dehydrated without realizing it, and spent the evening feeling kind of yucky. However, some popsicles and gatorate took care of it after a while. My sunburn is currently in the itchy stage, so I can only thank heaven that I had the foresight to wear pants!

2) Steve got me tickled at the grocery store and in church this weekend. Saturday we went to Fresh Market (which I love, but will someday cause me to go bankrupt) and in the pork section of the meat case they have a pig sculpted out of raw sausage and it has mini tomatoes for eyes. Normally I would probably think it was cute, but the eyes follow you as you walk by, and it is kind of creepy. It's like it's staring at you, taunting you, daring you to pull of a delicious chunk and eat it. I walked past it as usual, trying not to be creeped out, when Steve stopped and pointed to it. He asked me "Do you know what that is?" I said "A pig?" Steve said "No. That's the sausage that you'd save by switching to GEICO." I'm not quite sure why that was so funny to me, but it made me laugh. At church, our pastor's sermon was titled "Pirates" and the title, along with the text, was projected onto the screen before preaching actually started. While I was looking up Colossians 2, Steve leaned over and whispered "and next week, we'll learn about Ninjas!" I snorked in church. I hope it didn't disturb too many folks. :)

3) When I came to work Friday, my boss was in my office rearranging things. Now, my office is not some kind of inner sanctum, sacred to me and me alone. However, it's still my office. I'd like to think I have veto power of someone coming in and moving stuff out and around. Sam has been in a weird mood lately and has been cleaning and rearranging like mad. He says it's because they are having to revamp the way signs are being made and I'll need more room to have the things we are using. However, I have a whole room just off of my office for storage, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to come in and restructure. Oh well, better him cleaning my office than me, I suppose. I just wish I had some kind of say on where things go. I have a system, for heaven's sake! :)

4) Anyone have a "Hawaii" quarter I can have? I mean, I'll trade you another quarter for it, so it's not like I'm just asking for money or anything. It's the only quarter I don't have in my State Quarter book, and it's driving me crazy. Normally I'm not that OCD about things like this, but I have been doing so well about collecting them that I hate to have one missing at this stage. Also, not having that one quarter is also preventing me from adding the plastic insert that protects the others and keeps them from falling out of the page. Can a sista get a quarter? :)

5) Logan, my oldest nephew, turned 15 last week. He makes me feel so old! I was 16 when he was born, and I clearly remember thinking that when he got to be my age, I would be 32 years old. I also clearly remember thinking that 32 years old was a LONG way away. He got his permit and everything. Steve and I got him a keyring with his name, and "Slow Down" engraved on it (along with his cash) as a gift, and he actually seemed really happy about it. In fact, he jumped up and hugged both Steve and I and said thank you, which is something he's never done before. I mean, he always says "thank you", but he says it from his chair. After that something got in my eye and I needed a moment to get it out, so I'm not sure what happened after that. :)

...and HOME! Whee!

As usual, you'll have to go down a few entries to read this in order. :)

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION

MONDAY 4/20: Everyone seems to be feeling better now, so no zombie plague! It took us a while to get ready to go, but we finally got on the road. There really isn't much to say about everything because we've basically just been driving all day. We finally stopped in Hattiesburg, MS to eat and find a place to sleep. I thought we were just going to drive on through, but 18 hours is a long time to drive! I'm not feeling very safe at the hotel they picked. I have an illogical fear of staying in places where the doors open to the outside. I don't know why, but I suppose that's why it's illogical. Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that Hattiesburg makes me aggressive. That probably sounds weird, but I can remember being here once before, and I had the same weird reaction of just feeling angry for no reason. This town has a bad aura. Or something...I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired and cranky. That sounds more like it! :)

Next there will be some sleeping, and tomorrow there will be home! Huzzah!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION

SUNDAY 4/19: I actually had to talk Grandma out of fixing another huge breakfast for us this morning. I managed to talk her into just letting us have cereal, but she made up her mind to make toast, coffee, orange juice, and chocolate milk. I'm going to weigh a thousand pounds before I leave here tomorrow!

We were supposed to go to church with Grandma this morning, but poor Mr. Lee isn't feeling any better, and then Steve came down with whatever illness it is. We have no clue what is wrong, but it's like the stomach flu without the fever. Then, right before time to get ready, Grandma said she wasn't feeling well. I doubt we'll go to church, because everyone's laying down but me.

So far I'm OK, but I'm just waiting until it gets me. I'm afraid! I don't want whatever it is and I wish none of them had it!

Ha! I just re-read that last part and it sounds like one of those movies where there is one lone survivor of some kind of zombie plague, and that was the last entry into the journal that someone finds years later after everyone else has disappeared. :)

Ooh, I hope it's not a zombie plague.

LATER: OK, strike that. Grandma and I went to church services. It didn't matter that I said I wanted to stay with Steve and Mr. Lee, apparently I will always be a 5 year old to some people. Unless I stoop to yelling at them (and quite frankly acting 5 years old) that is going to be the way things have to be. Fun stuff. At any rate, Grandma's church is huge. Since I was a new visitor, I also got a swag bag! Nice. We stopped and got Mr. Lee and Steve some Gatorade before we came home. I hope they're better tomorrow. I'd hate to think of them feeling this bad on a long drive.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION

SATURDAY 4/18: I don't think it's normal for people to eat as much as we have since we got here last night. Granted, I was so hungry when I got here and I was fed like a prize willing sow, but Grandma just keeps feeding us. This morning Grandma made a huge breakfast: bacon, eggs, biscuits and everything and she almost literally made us eat. Mr. Lee had caught some kind of bug and wasn't hungry, so it fell to Steve and I to eat all of this food. I say it fell to us, because Grandma wouldn't let us leave the table. She kept handing us food and telling us to eat. We'd tell her no, and she'd put the food on our plates! I finally had to admit defeat and physically remove myself from the table, but I had eaten way more than I wanted so that it wouldn't hurt her feelings. I love Grandma very much, and I've learning something about her in the past couple of days. I think she really wants to take care of us and do things for us, but because she's 86 years old, she's kind of limited to what she can do. She can still cook, so cooking has become her big thing to do for us. During breakfast she talked about other places we could eat. I'm sure Mr. Lee was loving this, because even though we didn't realize until later in the day, he was really sick.

Today was the day of the actual family reunion, so we loaded up the van and set off to see the family. I've really only met Steve's family members a couple of times before, so going to his family reunion is almost more awkward that going to my own! Literally, there are just a few people that I know, and the rest are complete strangers that have no idea where I fir into the picture! Luckily the family I DO know are really nice, so I at least had someone t talk to. Steve was no help, because he just did like he always does and sits in a corner not talking to anyone. He doesn't take the burden of talking to people on his shoulders at all! Aarrrrg! However, it wasn't a bad time, because I got talked into playing a domino game called "Mexican Railroad" which took up most of the time we were there. We actually ended up having fun, so it wasn't a bad day at all. We talked with Steve's cousin Cynthia, who he grew up with, and had a nice time.

Once we left the reunion, Grandma wanted to take us out for pizza, because she knew of a place she really liked and wanted us to try it. The way she described it, I thought it was going to be like Cici's or something along those lines. It actually turned out to be more like a Chuck-E Cheese kind of place, but not a chain. It was full of kids screaming and playing games. It wasn't terrible or anything, we enjoyed the pizza and got to talk, but we were so full when we left (after eating at the reunion and everything) that we pretty much just came home and lay about for the rest of the day. Mr. Lee, who had seemed fine while at the reunion, got worse once we came home, but he lay down and we watched TV until bedtime.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION

FRIDAY 4/17: Today we drove. We drove and drove and drove and drove. Then we drove some more! It really was a day of almost nothing more than driving. After a fairly good continental breakfast at our hotel, we set off over the river and through the woods to grandma's house. I was listening to the novel "Psycho" and was trying to learn a new crochet pattern, so I kept myself occupied. At around noon, we stopped in a small town and had lunch at this hole-in-the-wall place that was apparently a local favorite. It was FULL of people, and we got there just ahead of the second wave. The place was a family owned restaurant in Iowa, LA called "Fausto's " and it had some really spectacular hamburgers. The people were also really nice there, and I got to talk to a nice man who accidentally bumped into me and spent a while apologizing. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside, which was small and had lots of stuffed fish on the walls, but I've come to learn that people don't really like when you take pictures inside of their stores and stuff, and I also didn't want to annoy the locals, so I kept the camera away. I WAS determined to take my traditional foot picture with the sign, but when I went outside, there was a good-ol-boy convention out there, so I had to do it ninja-style from inside of the van. I hope they didn't see me! :)

After that we got back on the road and eventually got to the Texas Welcome Station that we always stop at. It's located in Blue Elbow Swamp, and there is a long boardwalk behind the building that winds through the swamp. I've never been there in the spring, just during the summer, so I've never seen any wildlife there before. This time there were lots of reptiles around! Luckily they were all down in the water and I was safely away on the bridge! I saw turtles, a lizard, some blue colored crabs, tiny fishes and lots and lots of snakes. I'm pretty sure at least half of them were cottonmouths, but they were small and busy eating minnows. We actually came across this weird knot of snakes writhing around all knotted up together in a pile. Mr. Lee and I watched it for quite a while before realizing that they were mating. I had taken some pictures of them before I knew what was going on, so I got a picture of a snake orgy! It was not as appealing as it sounds. :)

After we got our fill of watching the animals, we left from there and drove some more. We got caught in a terrible, terrible thunderstorm in Houston that flooded the roads in just a few minutes and caused traffic to back up for a long time. We had been looking for an Ikea, since we had never been to one before, and we finally found it and got out of the storm. Dear Lord, I didn't expect the sheer size of the place! I thought an Ikea was like any kind of store that you'd see in a mall. I didn't expect it to be the size of a mall! We got lost and wandered around for a long time before finding our way out of there. It was really cool! I felt kind of like a bupkin for being slightly overwhelmed by the size of it, but to be honest, I defy anyone who's never been to one to be able to find their way around on their first visit! :P After we lest there, we stopped at a huge electronics store called "Fry's" and I was bored out of my mind, but Steve and Mr. Lee had a ball.

There are a lot of Mexican people in Houston.

We finally got to Grandma's house and I walked in to give her a hug. I expected her to tell me she was glad to see me, but all she did was tell me that she needed someone to open the pickle jar! I love that crazy old lady! She had fixed us a wonderful and huge dinner, and we snarfed like crazy people. I was so hungry, and Grandma is a good cook! Then she gave us home made chocolate pie. I think I died a little bit inside, but in a good way.

Tomorrow is our family reunion!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION

THURSDAY 4/16: Today we set off for another Pratt family reunion in Conroe, Texas. Well, we didn't get to set off right away, we first had to take care of our giant vermin, Butler and Bear. I don't know if they sensed that we were leaving them someplace or not, but they were acting terribly! It shouldn't have come as a shock to them because we told them they were going to their "special resort" but I think all that registered with them was that they had to get into the car and they weren't happy about that. Once we finally got them tied into their choke collars, we got them into the car. Of course, Bear immediately starting walking on me so that he could look out of my window. An 80 pound catahoula mix walking on a person's leg isn't comfortable! When we finally got to the vet -uh, I mean resort, Butler was having a come apart and the vet's office wasn't open yet. We sat in the car, waiting for them to open, and at some point Butler and Bear changed places, so Steve had a hold of Bear while I had Butler's leash. Once the doors opened, Steve and Bear got out, and I had to try and get Butler out of the backseat of the convertible. I had a hold of his collar and his leash, trying to get him to stay close to me so I could close the door, and he backed out of his collar! I freaked out, because I was afraid that he would run out into the busy street in front of the building, so I left the door to the car wide open and proceeded to chase him through the parking lot, screaming his name and holding his collar and leash above my head! Luckily he ran directly into the lobby of the vet, and I practically tackled him to get his leash back on. A nice man who was waiting for his own dog to be taken back helped me, so I was lucky he was there. Poor Steve couldn't do anything to help because Bear had decided to wrap himself around Steve's legs. At any rate, we finally got our spastic mutts handed over to the workers. While we were signing the paperwork, at least two other dogs who were having the same kind of excitable morning came in and I was liberally gnawed, slobbered and jumped on. It was crazy. By the time I got back into the car, I was exhausted and covered with dog hairs.

We finally got home and ready to go, and Mr. Lee came and picked us up. As I've said before, going on a trip with Steve and his dad is an experience. No one really talks, but we listen to a lot of talk radio! I'm glad I don't have strong political leanings, because I'm sure I would have been insulted at some point along the way. I actually didn't mind much this time because I found a book to read. I actually didn't pay attention to much on the way to our stopping point for the night. We actually stayed in Slidell, LA, which is right outside of New Orleans. We decided to spend the evening over there, and even though we didn't really get to see much, we had a great time! We pretty much stayed in the French Quarter and I took some pictures while Mr. Lee looked for souvenirs. I hate looking like such a tourist, but I love to take photos. I was in a catch 22, but I decided that I would take the pictures anyways! I forgot, AGAIN, to take a picture of my foot in New Orleans, but to be fair, if I had to sit on the ground or something to get a picture of my foot with some kind of recognizable landmark, then I'll pass on that. The place is nasty! There were also a lot of boobies around. Not real boobies, but plastic ones and pictures of them. I don't mind them myself, but it's embarrassing when I know Mr. Lee sees them! :) We had dinner at a pub that had fantastic creole/cajun food and ended the night at Cafe du Monde, where I was finally able to get that cafe au lait that I've been dreaming about for months. I don't know if it's the coffee, the whole milk, the real sugar, or the combination of all of them, but it was sooooooooo good. We also got some beignets to go, and except for the powdered sugar spilling all down the front of my shirt, I enjoyed them as well! There is something wrong with the water in Slidell, though. It wasn't dirty or anything, but it felt really slimy, and when I took a shower it didn't feel like I could wash the soap off. Mr. Lee said it was because the water was soft. I don't know, but I didn't like it. :(

Tomorrow is the second half of our journey and getting to Grandma's house! Whee!

I'm curious.

Say that I accidentally come across a story on the interwebs that makes me sad, and I cry at my desk for a few minutes. When this happens, my eyes and nose get a bit red and I get kind of sniffy. No big deal, right?

OK, now let's say I come across a movie based on one of Nicholas Sparks horrible, soul-wringing books and I cry right before I go to sleep. When I wake up, my eyes are terribly swollen.

Why is it that daytime tears make my eyes red, but if I cry before sleeping, I wake up looking like Admiral Akbar?

IT'S A TRAP!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) When I went to the *ahem* lady doctor the other day, he asked me "Are you going to have children? You ARE in your 30s now." Now, we all know I hate when people ask me that, but since he is the doctor who would really care about these things, I just gave him the standard answer I give everyone when I choose to be polite about it. After I got home and thought about it, the fact that he said "You ARE in your 30s now" began to peeve me. I know that health-wise, it isn't safe to have children after a certain age, but come on. I'm 31! It's not like my ovaries have cobwebs on them yet or anything! At any rate, I didn't want to have to explain my life and my reasoning to a person who doesn't matter, so I just told him no, I'm not planning on having any, and he left it alone. I was glad. Oh, but on a good note, he didn't ask me any weird questions during my exam this year. He must read my blog!

2) I'm finally getting to start on my graphics for the new Star Trek stuff that will go in the IMAX lobby. However, this new movie is different in a lot of annoying ways (design wise) from the old series on which it is based, so I'm never sure what stuff I should use. Mostly, I'm just sticking with the actual old school stuff, J.J. Abrams be damned! However, I did spend about an hour and half yesterday making an old Romulan symbol before fully realizing that it is so old school that most people won't have a clue what it is. Oh, well. It's fun for me, though, so I'm not going to complain too much. Yet! :)

3) The new Space Camp Podcast will probably come out soon, if it isn't out already. Our awesome web guy has been super busy with complicated web page stuff, so it has taken a bit longer than it usually does. This time I explain how a microwave was invented and how it works! It's real Masterpiece Theater stuff, I tell you!

4) I bought a whole box of cereal yesterday just for the prize in the box. If you eat Frosted Mini Wheats and you care very little for Star Trek, I wouldn't mind taking the "Beam Up Badge" off of your hands! I mean, if you happen to find one in your box. :) I have the Command emblem one right now, so I still need the Science, Engineering, Romulan Empire & Klingon Empire ones for my collection. I'm just sayin...

5) Happy Good Friday, everyone! Hope we can all keep in mind what this weekend is all about. However, I still firmly believe that Jesus doesn't have a thing against chocolate, so don't feel bad if you indulge a bit. It IS a celebration, after all.

6) I don't know how many people have seen this commercial or not, but there is a new Burger King commercial out there where Sir Mix-a-Lot has revamped the lyrics to his most memorable "song" so that he can shill for the new Spongebob Squarepants toys that come with the BK kids meals. He now likes Square Butts, rather than big ones. Oy vey. All I can do is say: Sir Mix-a-Lot, you are nobility! A knight of the realm. Have some dignity. Please.

7) I keep having dreams about people I went to high school with, but haven't seen in years. It happens almost every night, and it's starting to get weird. It's not even about the same people, but it's always someone that I was friends with back in the day, but lost touch with. I wonder if that means I'm going to hear from some of them soon?

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Well, the idea to build the commanding station of the Enterprise went bust, but we are still probably going to get Captain Kirk's chair built. I wish it would fit into my office when the movie leaves, but that sucker is going to be both big and heavy, as well as virtually impossible to carry up the stairs to my office. Hmmm, I wonder if I do puppy-dog eyes for the guys down at the IMAX, would the bring it up here anyways? Probably not. My puppy-dog eyes used to be so very powerful. *Sigh*

2) I made myself a mix CD that I've been listening to in the car lately, and the first song on the list is "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," a very quick bluegrass instrumental. I love the song, but it sounds like the kind of song that would be playing as the Duke Boys outrun the law. I want to look in my rear-view mirror and see Rosco P. Coletrain in the car behind me! I'll promise not to try and do any ridiculous jumps, though.

3) I've got to go to the dentist tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. On a lighter note, though, my new dentist's name is Andrew Knight. He shares a practice with his father who's name is Michael Knight! It's not as awesome as finding a Korean dentist named Dr. Hoo, but it's close.

4)Happy First Day of Passover! Uh...mozel tov? I don't know what the correct way to say that is, but there you go.

Saturday was such an awesome day!



Sara (Scary Spice, you know) and I went to the BJCC in Birmingham and saw a production of "Wicked!" It was SO awesome. I had read the book, and had looked into going to see this show a couple of years ago, but it never came very close to Huntsville. When Sara contacted me in January, I believe, to let me know it was coming to Birmingham, I jumped on it right away! She got us some really great seats, and we went to a matinee. After a while of climbing over people and being misdirected by the ushers, we finally found our seats and got settled.

The show was better than I imagined it would be. I'd seen clips of video taken from the Broadway show, but it wasn't enough to really tell anything about it. The lead, Elphaba, was played by a woman who had played her on Broadway and she had the greatest voice! I loved the costumes and the music and everything! Well, except for the flying monkeys, and they were just weird. They kind of freaked me out the same way that Cirque de Soleil freaks me out. I can't explain any better than that. It was just a really amazing show. If you ever get a change to see it, you definately should. The story was even changed just enough so that kids could really enjoy it, so you can take them too!

I decided that I would love to do musical theater, but I don't think I could actually pull it off. I could do the singing and the costumes, and I'm even fairly certain that I could learn to dance well enough to do the show...but I don't know how comfortable I'd be actually participating. Anyways, I'm still going to learn all of the songs from the show, just because. :) I'd actually like to see the show in a bigger venue sometime if I can. Even though everthing was great, I'm still fairly certain that a traveling show has some kinds of limitations. I can't imagine how, though.

Afterwards, after braving a crowd that almost knocked me down and after buying a show shirt from a poorly disguised transgendered man, Sara and I went to a restaurant called "Rojo" which was in a very interesting area. It was some kind of hipsters paradise, but the burgers were fantastic. I recommend it.

It was a good day.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I keep hearing about some McDonald's commercial for Filet-o-Fish that has a catchy song on it, but I don't think I've seen it yet. It may be for the best, if the song is of the brainworm variety. Am I just not watching the right channel?

2) Tuesday I had a brief come-apart after finding out that I had to, once again, stop everything I was doing and start a whole new project for another inconsiderate nit who our administration sucks up to because she's married to someone with money. Trust me, it's not the work that bothered me, it was more the fact that she asks for ridiculous things at the last minute and we always have to roll over and do it because no one wants her to complain to hubby. It's infuriating. What made it worse was the fact that she knew she needed these things that she asked for 3 weeks ago, but she didn't ask for them until two days before she needed them. She actually asked for something much more complicated, but my co-worker talked her down from that and we managed to make her something much more manageable. Had she asked for them a week before she needed them, I wouldn't have gotten angry. I just hate having to kiss ass around here, but if I want to keep my job, I have to. It's asinine.

3) I'm finally going to get to talk to the COO about getting part of the Enterprise built in time for the movie opening! He's the man who tells everyone what to do, so I'm going in armed and ready. I hope we have time to do what I've been thinking about, but it may end up that we just paint the windows of the booth again. Oh well, if we don't get to fancy with Star Trek, at least I can put in my efforts on getting ready for Harry Potter! Yay!

4) I've been busy lately doing a rather tedious job. I mentioned last week, I think, about my boss bringing me a ripped up diagram of some sort and wanting me to make a new one. He said that I could just pop it into Photoshop and clean it up and add in the bits that were missing, but I realized that when it was scanned, he either accidentally moved it or something glitched, because it's not aligned properly in some places. I'm actually trying to recreate it in Illustrator, and I think I'm doing a fairly competent job at it so far. I just hope that I don't go through all of this trouble and the image get slapped on the backside of the thing where no one can see it!

5)The moonbuggy races are today and tomorrow, and I hate the fact that the entire place is taken over. I mean, it doesn't affect me very much, since I'm in the ghetto penthouse up here, but it's just so LOUD. :(

6) My sister's house was broken into last Sunday, and the wretched souls who robbed them took a lot of the boys electronics and my sister's jewelry box. She's really upset about everything else, but especially because my father's topaz ring (the one that was as much a part of him as his wedding band was and it was what my mother gave to Logan because he loved Papa so much) was in there. She is just sick about it. I wish that it would somehow turn up, but I'm fairly sure it's been sold or sent to one of those "cash for gold" places and melted down. It makes me so angry that people do things like that and have absolutely no concern for anyone but themselves. I miss my dad so much, and now something of his was stolen and either sold to someone who has no idea how it important it was or destroyed. It hurts my heart. I wish I could get my hands on whomever did it and just beat the snot out of them. Seriously. I wish I could hurt them in a way that they wouldn't ever do something like that again to anyone else. It's just too bad that vigilante justice isn't legal because I'd certainly learn ways to make people cry. I have been fairly intolerant of people's bull shit over the past year, and I hope I can get that under control before I really do snap on someone. I don't want to go to jail!

7) I've been listening to the book "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier (?) lately and I had forgotten how much I liked it. I had read it before, but I guess I wasn't paying close attention or something because I'm enjoying a great deal more than I did the last time. The one thing that irks me, and it's the same thing that irks me about most movies or TV shows, is that if the people would just talk to each other and be honest about stuff, most problems would be avoided. Oh well, if they did that, most books and movies would be very short!

Just when I thought I was safe...I clicked on the wrong link:

I tried to explain "Lost" to someone who had never see the show, and it made about as much sense as this did. Amazingly, though, this is as succinct a description as one can get.



Also, Hurley is my boyfriend. :)

WHY A HEALTHIER DIET WILL END UP KILLING ME

I hadn't been feeling very well for most of the day yesterday. I was sleepy, sore, and just feeling yucky. My guess is that it was because of my allergies, or because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, or maybe because I had overdone it at the gym that morning. I don't know, I just knew that I didn't feel well.

So lunch time comes around, and I wasn't really hungry, but I knew that if I didn't eat something I'd just end up feeling worse later on. I made myself eat the lunch I had brought, and lo and behold, I found a package of Sugar-Free mini Peppermint Patties in my bag. I had bought them so that I would have some not-so-bad-for-me chocolate nearby, and I completely forgot about them. I know, me forgetting about chocolate: it's a sign of the apocalypse, right? Anyways, I wound up eating three of them, which is the serving size, and they were softer than the regular kind and the filling felt cold on my tongue, but they tasted fairly normal so I didn't think anything else about them and I went on with my day. About 30 minutes later, I realized that I was feeling worse than before, but now I wasn't just feeling yucky, I was also dizzy and having trouble breathing! It felt like my throat was all fuzzy on the inside. I knew that it had to have been the stupid candy that caused it because it was the only thing I had eaten that was new to me. It hadn't been a sudden feeling, but once I realized what was going on, it took over my mind. Once it took over my mind, I did what I always do in this situation: I completely panicked.

I'm going to stop here for a moment and explain something about myself that some of you may already know. I'm terrified of suffocating. I'm guessing that it's not a completely irrational fear, or even an uncommon one, but for me it's very bad. It started when I was about 12 when one of my cousins was playing around and he put a pillow over my face and pressed down on it. He was so much bigger than I was that I couldn't push him off, and he had no idea that I really couldn't breathe! I almost passed out. Since then, any time it gets hard to breathe, even just a little bit, I get panicky. That is one of the main reasons I'm so claustrophobic.

So I'm sitting in my office, feeling this fuzzy throat feeling and thinking "I'm going to die. I'm going to stop breathing and die and no one will know that some kind of allergic reaction to something in those stupid peppermint patties is what killed me!" So I got up and walked downstairs, thinking that if I passed out around a lot of people, it would be more likely that someone would call Sickbay (our nurses station). It didn't help the panic much, but the breathing got a little easier. I came back up to our office and finally told my co-workers what was going on in case I really did pass out (which was starting to feel like a possibility) and I went back into my office and sat down. I finally realized that even though I my throat felt kind of fuzzy and swollen, it wasn't the biggest problem. It was more the fact that I was having a panic attack about it that was making it so hard to breathe. I tried to calm down, and it would work for a second or two, but then I'd start to panic again. I finally decided that the best thing I could do was take one of my anxiety pills, which I keep in my purse for emergencies. I knew that if I could calm down, then I could breathe easier. I haven't had to take one in a long time, thank goodness, so I figured that my tolerance for them was down enough so that it would start working quickly.

Well, it did work quickly. Actually, embarrassingly quickly. I took the pill, and about 10 minutes later I started feeling better. About 5 minutes after that, I started to feel sleepy. 5 minutes after that, I'd fallen asleep face down on my drafting table. I can't remember those pills having that affect on me before, but I know I'll be careful when I take them in the future! I actually have no idea how long I was asleep, but I do know that people came in and out of my office, and not one of them shook me or anything to see if I was alive. I told them I was having trouble breathing, and I was face down unconscious on my desk, but no one thought to check for signs of cyanosis or for a pulse or anything! Nice, huh? Maybe I was snoring or moving, I don't know, but I do know I'm going to check into getting a Medic-Alert button up here or something! All's well that ends well, I guess, because I wasn't dead. But if I had been, I would be haunting all of them so hard right now!!!

The truth is, I've had that same reaction to other kinds of low-fat or low calorie foods before, but I haven't been able to pin-point exactly what ingredient my body doesn't like. So far I know to avoid York's Sugar Free Peppermint Patties and Hostess 100 calorie Coffee Cake mini-muffins, but I can't remember the others that caused the same problem. Now I've just got to figure out what they have in common so I can avoid eating it in the future. Stupid diet foods. Trying to be healthy is going to kill me.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I want to join a something-of-the-month club, but I don't know what kind. I know that sounds a bit silly, but I like getting packages in the mail! Deep down, I'm 12, I can't help it. I have a couple of problems about choosing which kind: a) Most of these are expensive, so if I'm going to do this I want to get something I can use or that I can enjoy. b) I don't need a new jar of jelly every month. c) Cut flowers die quickly and I pretty much have a black thumb when it comes to living plants. d) I'm afraid if I get fruit, most of it will go bad before I got a chance to eat it. So there you go. Anyone got any suggestions?

2) I'm turning into the Graphic Design McGyver at work. I am asked to make a lot of different things,and usually I don't really think much about what it is, I just do it. Yesterday, it dawned on me that the people around here must put a lot of faith into my artistic abilities, because a lot of the time I'm asked to do something, I don't really get directions. Sometimes I don't even get source materials, and I'm expected to recreate something I don't know about, and that I've usually never seen before! Yesterday, for instance, my boss came in holding what looked like a postage stamp in one hand and a photograph that had been blasted with a shotgun in the other. Archives and Exhibits are moving a lot of our large stuff from the main museum over to the Davidson Center, and behind the LEM (the big, shiny, spider-looking-thing that was used to land on the moon) apparently had some kind of schematic or diagram attached to it. Whatever it is, it was really old, and it had gotten ripped so they need it replaced. The postage size piece he had was a random piece of the image, and so I had to puzzle piece it back together. The diagram doesn't have a name on it, or tell where it came from, or even what it is, but they want it recreated! So they brought it to me. I think I have enough of it to almost completely draw a new one, except for where the hole is, and I may just have to wing it. I'm sure whatever NASA guy who originally drew the thing would be so proud. :)

3) So, I'm not sure what's going to happen with the bridge to the Enterprise. Too many people are dragging their feet lately to get anything nailed down. My idea is to have the platform built where the captain and navigators sit mocked up, but if we don't hurry up and get some stuff planned, construction isn't going to have time to make it. :( I just really want it to be awesome, and I'm thwarted at every turn! Curses!

Sniff

I've been sitting at my desk crying for the past ten minutes.

If you look to the right, you'll see a link for a website called "The Adventures of Kaya and Luna," which is a site 'written by' two Great Danes who live in Australia. I found their website by accident a while ago, and I'm sure I've mentioned it here a couple of times. I kind of unofficially adopted them, I suppose. One of their owners is a very talented pet photographer, and her pictures just brought them to life for me, and because the blog is written from the POV of the dogs, I felt like I knew them. I even have a picture of Kaya saved on my computer here at work that I use as my wallpaper, because something about her face always made me smile.

I just went to visit their site today for the first time in few days, and found out that Kaya has passed away because she had inoperable mouth cancer. I feel kind of like I've lost a friend.

I'll miss you, Kaya!

*Shut up. You know how much I love dogs. Now I need to go home and hug my boys.

This morning I was rudely ripped from sleep because "Reveille" began playing loudly out of our alarm clock. Steve thought it would be funny to wake up military style, but I don't think I got the joke.

For about 5 seconds, because I was in CrazyTown, I was terrified that I accidentally joined the Army. I'm not even kidding.

Steve has lost is iPod privileges for one week.

IT WAS INEVITABLE

Saturday night I watched the movie "Twilight" with Steve. I'll go ahead and get this part out of the way and tell you that it was NOT my Netflix choice. I had been successfully avoiding both the movie and the book for quite a while now, even though it's always being talked about on websites that review movies and things of that kind. Before I had even watched the movie, I was convinced that I would hate it. Why? I have no idea. Sometimes I DO judge a book by it's cover and a movie by it's trailer. It's just how I roll. At any rate, usually when I'm convinced that I will hate something, it usually turns out that I like it a lot in the end. Alas, this was not one of those times.

Now, before I tell you why I didn't care for it, and because there are a lot of people who I like a great deal who loved both the book and the movie, let me preface everything with this: I can totally understand the appeal of the story. I get it, really I do! It's a love story that every young girl would love to be in. Undying love, protection, mystery and etc. I even picked up the book and read a little bit of it before I was completely turned off by it. See, I tried! The movie was also beautifully shot, even though the blue filter was overdone quite a bit, but otherwise lovely. I can't even be pretentious and say that I think that anyone who did enjoy either the books or the movie is uncultured or plebeian, because that isn't the case at all. I can also say that if I were 15 years old, I would have dug the hell out of it. I even understand the allure of the cute vampire guy. I mean I can't lie and say I didn't have a poster of Louis Pont du Lac on my wall for a couple of years. Seriously, I get it.

Now, having said all that, allow me to paraphrase a movie I actually liked a great deal to explain my feelings towards "Twilight."

"I hated it... SO MUCH... it was flaming, flames, FLAMES... on the side of my face... heaving breaths, heaving" - if you know what movie that came from, then we can be friends.

1) Bella: I hated the heroine. I hated her. I mean, she moves from a big city to a small town where she is instantly loved and admired by everyone who crosses her path in her new school. Do I hate her for being liked? No. I hate her because she basically brushed off and ignored everyone who was trying to be nice to her, and fixated on the one (1) brooding, emo, spiky-haired pale guy who treated her as if she smelled bad. I get the whole "hard to get" thing, but come on! Then the guy starts following her everywhere and sneaking in to her room to watch her sleep, and it didn't bother her! Yeah, I knew a guy who acted like that when I was her age, I called him a stalker. I'm positive that if he had had access to a car, he would have watched me sleep too. Would that make me all swoony? Heck no! OK, THEN this chick finds out he's a vampire and that doesn't bother her a bit! No, not even after he admits that he'd never wanted to eat anyone as much as he wanted to eat her. Sorry, folks, but that is where I'd be all....Heh, yeah, um....*garlickandstakesallupinyoursparklyface!* Granted, I know what the metaphor was all about, but still, no. Just, no. If that wasn't enough, then we are supposed to understand that she falls so head over heels in love with this guy, that at 17 years old, she's willing to completely give up her entire life (literally) to be with him? Huh? I'm not playing the feminist card at this point, I'm playing the realist card: that is all kinds of screwed up. Think about the person you dated when you were her age, in the throws of high-school love, and then imagine being with them for the rest of eternity. Not just till you die, but forever and ever. You see what I mean? If I did that, I'd be with a guy who not only treated me badly, but who also liked other guys. I'd be the worlds oldest vampire fag-hag! Nice huh? I wanted to punch this girl in the face. She also isn't a good actor. I mean, she reeeeeeeeeally wasn't a good actor.

2) Edward: I liked him better as Cedrick Diggory. He weirded me out with his obsessive/possessive behaviour and his hair needed washing. He did kind of redeem himself for a bit by not letting his girlfriend get hit by a car or get eaten by the mean vampires. He also seemed to be the only person who had sense not to let Bella turn into a vampire. Well, not until later, from what I understand, but at least he says no in this movie. Also, he sparkles. Vampires do not sparkle.

3) Jacob: OK, I liked him. He was cute. Move along.

4) Cullen Family: They're creepy and weird. They were helpful and nice, but they are still sparkly vampires with a strange affinity for baseball. Nice house, though.

5) Everyone else in this movie was kind of insipid, ergo, I won't bother with mentioning them.

So there you go. I actually tried to like this movie, but it made me want to stab myself in the eye with a fork before it was over. If you liked it, great! It just wasn't my cup of tea. It was, however, a first for me in a way. I've never actually cheered for a vampire to eat someone before! I wish he had listened. I hear there will be a sequel. Oy.