Curly hairs - an ode to grandma Hunter

Well, another year, another grandparent..... We just got back from my granny Thelma's funeral. Currently everyone is in the living room doing the southern, after funeral gather round for lots of food and story telling thing. My dad's brother decided to not come to the funeral - how lovely. I'm so worried about my grandpa because he's of course been taking grandma's death really hard. Dad went around their house the other day taking pictures of things the way she left them (the kitchen sink with all her little knick knacks from over the years from all her kids that she would have never dreamed of getting rid of, the pictures on her wall that were hung perfectly straight because we're all pretty sure she had a level built in to her head, her cabinet filled with empty jars that were destined to be filled with her pickles or other things from her garden.......) We've spent a lot of time laughing at the goofy memories we all have of her. Anyone that has been "privileged" enough to hear my granny Thelma stories knows what I'm talking about. I rest assured that my world will just not be as "purdy, curly, or paihnchable" without her. :(

Let me in! I'm naked!

Ok ok people. I will now share this highly disturbing story with you. My good buddy insists no stalking will take place from the streaker or said family of streaker after writing. So I'm trusting him on this one. If I get a stalker we can all blame it on him. Haha. And begin.........

Last weekend was going very nicely. Tina had left for Missouri with D-n-A and I was planning on coming up that Saturday because some "things" needed to be "taken care of" Friday evening.....Anyways, fast forward through the goodness and land me smack in the middle of Friday night bummed without Tina, alone, downtown in my car. I decide to call "Bob" and "Mrs. Bob"*. They tell me to come on over and we'll talk. So I make my way to their house and we stay up talking till about 2:30. They took crazy good care of me and told me I should just crash at their place instead of going home to the empty house. I agree and crash on their couch. Well, I finally get my head to shut up and go to sleep......only to be awakened at about 4 am to the sound of banging, beating, shouting, and general unpleasantness outside. Now people, anyone that knows me well, knows that I could have a tornado rolling through my bedroom and a cow land on my face and I'd still be drooling on the pillow. But this night, I was AWAKE. I hear lots of moaning and some very un-nice things. And finally it stops. And then......the said moaner comes to our door and starts beating his body in to it and turning the handle! (Enter my immediate heart failure) This stops pretty quickly about the time I hear another voice. I decide to take a peep out of the blinds at this point and lo and behold there were two moons out that night. =-O !!!! Yes, the shouting man had removed all his clothes from the waist down and was prancing around the yard. The other voice I heard was a cop. So moony man decides he wants to go for a swim in the pond that had to be cold and was not looking welcoming in the least. But the cop is yelling at him to not do it and >splash< in jumps moony man. The cop finally gets him to the edge and starts to handcuff him but moony man ain't having it and starts bucking and flailing-nearly throws the cop in the water. More cops finally arrive and sad to say left their tazers and night sticks at the office apparently. But I got to see a good old fashioned whoopin' cuz moony man had decided to take on the whole police force that had arrived. He was hog tied and hauled away in an ambulance. This was about 4:30am. And that's when I went back to sleep. The next morning, boy did I have a story to tell! "Mrs. Bob" however was very upset that 1.she did not get to see a live version of her favorite show COPS and 2."Bob" slept through the whole ordeal not really demonstrating his "I a caveman and protect family at all costs" skills. Heh heh. Later that day, I drove to Missouri in tornado strength winds only to come back home not even 24 hours later. I know how to pack some fun in a weekend!
*names have been changed to protect the innocent

BOYCOTTING FIRESTONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, last weekend I got a flat tire. We (ok ok-mostly Todd, while Tina and I watched- I did a lovely job of cranking up the jack thank you very much) changed it out for the spare and I took it in to Firestone the next day for them to fix/replace it. I have road hazard on the things, I bought the tires from them, and that's where I always take them when I run over something which I tend to do quite a bit. The guy was an utter jerk and treated me like I didn't know my butt from a hole in the ground because I'm a woman and proceeded to tell me my car needs about $1300!! worth of repairs while I'm at it, some of which included a $40 oil change she wasn't due for, a $15 battery corrosion package(hello! coke!), and various other pumps and jim jammies replaced. I told him I'm not getting anything done but the tire. Anywho, today, I'm coming back from my last class of the day, and everything's going fine. I decide I don't want to go home because the weather is so bee-u-ti-full and so I was trying to get a signal on my dang phone that is about to kick the bucket to see if anyone would want to meet me for coffee. And so I am turning on to Summer and whoa nelly! I almost run in to oncoming traffic because I cannot turn my wheel. I am wondering,"what tha heck??" But I forcefully turn the thing and pull it in to the closest parking lot. By this time it dawned on me that my dang power steering had gone out. So I did what any girl of my nature would do when they aren't really sure what to do. I called dad. He asked if I could drive it, just as far to their house. And so I cranked her up (I noticed that was the second time I was able to use the expression"crank up" in this entry- sweet!) and hand over hand fully flexin, back her up, and pull her back on to Summer. Well........ I'm driving along (in a mostly straight line so that was good) and I see smoke emerging from my hood. This causes me to look at my temperature gauge and sure nuff'- I'm overheating! Yay! I start praying at this point, "Please just let me make it home. Please Bessie, just make it home. C'mon old Bessie. You can do it." She's a' smokin' and a' boilin' acting all fussy but I made it to mom and dad's........where we proceed to pop the hood and take a peek. Ok, my serpentine belt is just dangling, there's some random pulley wedged in between metal, and my water is boiling. "Hmmm, not good." I think. And then I thought to call Firestone and chew them out for messing with my levers and pullies without my permission(please ask, thank you very much) and got so stinkin' mad, I thought it might be better for dad to do it. Well, he called them and told them the story. Of course, they simply "performed a totally visual only test. We couldn't have caused it." How the devil would they have known all that $1300 was wrong with it just from looking at it I'd like to know! But he was nice-ish and said "alright then." and hung up. And so now, I am stuck at mom and dad's with no car writhing in my anger. And so in the words of the girl from Saturday Night Live........."I think my feelings could best be expressed in a song by No Doubt"
Cause I'm just a girl, little ol' me
Don't let me out of your sight
I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights
Oh....I've had it up to here!
The moment I step outside
So many reasons for me to run and hide
I can't do the little things I hold so dear
Cause' it's all those little things that I fear
Cause I'm just a girl, I'd rather not be
Cause' they won't let me drive my stupid car
without telling me there's $1300 worth of stuff wrong with it
and just fix my dang tires
Cause' I'm just a girl, guess I'm some kind of freak
Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes
I'm just a girl, take a good look at me
Just your typical prototype
Oh....I've had it up to here!
Oh....am I making myself clear??

2 Words

IT SNOWED!!!!



(And I got a little carried away with making a unique snowman-hehe)
Now Spring's approach won't make me sad for lack of playtime in the snow. :D Yay! So happy!

Spring Break!

Well, I am going to Treasure Island beach in Tampa Bay, Florida in March during spring break. Still not sure of the dates of the Hard Rock Cafe Florida job, but I am loving all this trip action! Yippee! A little group of us are getting some cheap rooms in a po dunky joint...but it's on the beach! I'm so excited! Though we are driving there....so that's a little icky, but I'm trying to convince my parents to let us take their minivan so we can all fit in one car at least. We'll have 6 drivers though, so that should make it easier. And it should end up being a pretty cheap trip, which is always nice. I'm trying to figure out a way to get at least a smidge of sun presence on this pasty white body of mine...... If I don't.... which is most likely seeing as how the only way I could get some sun is in a tanning bed, and that will never happen (I guess I could try the fake bake layering lotion stuff but the last time I did that, I got a huge patch of hives on my arm. I don't know if it was from that or the other hive inducing things goin' down in my life at the time....but still! How straight up nasty would it be to have hives and pastiness on the beach????!!!!!) Everybody!.....bring out your sunglasses!!

Florida! Whoo Hoo!!

Well, I apparently talked to much smack about Key West and someone out there is listening. OK, either that, or somewhere, sometime, a band of drag queens and beer wenches put a tracking device in me and now check my blog in addition to knowing where I'm at 24/7. =-0 !!!! I say this because a couple weeks ago, we refinished the bar at the local Hard Rock Cafe. They obviously liked what they saw and are now requesting us to do another........in......Key West Florida-home of the lowered pirate beer wench and Sushi in the red shoe. N.o. W.a.y. What timing! But hey! Who's complainin'?? So... we are gonna make it a little extended work/trip with the family. Tina will of course be able to camp out on the beach all day everyday (grrrrr). But I will slave my fingers to the bone getting it all done in record time(hopefully-please please!) so that I can hang with the wench. Huh Hhmmm....... The pirate beer totting variety of course. Sushi and beer wenches, here I come!

Just Chillin' With My Peeps....

I always stay up and watch the ball drop in New York City on New Year's. Sometimes the local stations here decide to not show it and use the time to show car chases and other useless trash I couldn't give two hoots about when the countdown is going on. But alas, this year I was able to see it, twice! (New York time and our time) But while watching, one of my friend's informed me that last year, she saw a drag queen being lowered in a red shoe, and I thought, "That's hilarious! I wonder if other places drop things??" Sooooo.... I am thrilled to share with you what I found. Enjoy..... In Havre de Grace, Maryland, a wooden duck is lowered. Atlanta, Georgia lowers an eight foot tall by eight foot wide, over 800 pound peach. North Carolina has a few different ones. In Brasstown, they lower a live opossum in a cage, Mount Olive, a pickle, and Raleigh, a 900 pound brass acorn. And Texas?? They hope to lower Darren Ballard's testicles in 2009. !?!? Indeed! Pennsylvania has the most.(28!!!!) In Blain, it's a cow made of wood, dropped from a silo. Falmouth has a stuffed goat lowered. Hershey raises a giant Hershey Kiss , and Mechanicsburg lowers a wrench (get it? Mechanics burg- a wrench- cute huh?) just to name a few. One of my personal favorites is the giant Peep that gets lowered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. But I think these two take the cake. First, the pirate beer wench(pictured)(Tina, how much could Bob tease you about that one!), and second, the drag queen named Sushi(also pictured) that comes from the ceiling in a nine foot red shoe, both brought to us from Key West, Florida. And I thought that shiny glass ball in New York was interesting! These people have gotten down right creative! But even though they are all extremely strange, they supposedly all have something to do with the city's history. Which leads me to wonder, "Who in the world established Key West??"