Civic Duty

Well I did it. For the first time in 15 years, and the first time for a presidential election, I finally voted. Yup, I’m one of those apathetic voters who generally believes that my vote doesn’t really count, and even more I have strong feelings that an uneducated vote is worse than no vote at all. I hate politics. I hate following the BS that goes on in the Capitol. It didn’t used to seem to matter too much who was running the country. Maybe I’m growing up, or maybe this country has been going to hell more noticeably in the last four years, but I finally cast a ballot for the first time since I was 18. That year I could hardly wait to vote. I was still a senior in high school, and most of my friends weren’t yet old enough to vote. I dutifully took the “sample ballot” from my parents and filled in my ballot along party lines. At least this time I shunned the “sample ballot”, choosing instead to research the items on the ballot for myself and choosing what I felt was right. Maybe I’ll do this again next year…during a non-presidential election…of course, if the wrong candidate wins this year, I may well be living in Canada next year….

NaNoWriMo Update – Day 1

Well, it’s not exactly great literature, but I’ve gotten a start on my NaNoWriMo novel. Total words for today: 1,977.

Hutch arrived

This is the hutch we bought with the wedding gift money and some of the remainder of our wedding savings. We’ll be using it to store some of our linens and the small appliances we don’t use terribly often so that we can free up some counter and cupboard space.

Happy 30th Kitty!

Hello Kitty turns 30 this year! I loved Hello Kitty when I was a little girl…hmmm, still love Hello Kitty, though my favorite character is now Keroppi.

Halloween!

   
We had about 75 kids last night, which a few more than my estimate for last year, but the traffic felt slower. We had a couple big rushes just after 8 PM — the last kids of the evening — but no steady stream of kids earlier. Maybe this is a symptom of the kids in the neighborhood getting older, since the older kids usually come out a bit later.

I also had books this year. Last year I only had five books to give out, and I wasn’t sure how/if they would go, but they went with the first four trick-or-treaters old enough to enjoy them. This year Andrew and I collected books at garage sales throughout the summer, and I had about 30 books for older kids and another 5 or so for the younger kids. I wasn’t sure that they would all go, but the baskets were empty by 7:30 PM. They were a big hit with the kids — I could hear the kids approach the door, but would wait until they knocked so they had a chance to look at the books (the couple times I opened the door while they were looking at the books, it distracted them away from the books, which defeated the purpose of having them out). Through the door I heard many kids say things like, “Cool, books”, and several even thanked me specifically for the books when I gave out their candy. We’ll have more books next year!

Lost Drivers License and a Shake-Down at a Fancy Hotel

Not sure what’s up with the odd dreams — one the night before last, and another one last night which I remember in some detail.

Last night started at a fancy party in an expensive hotel. I didn’t recognize the hotel, or the area outside for that matter. We walked through a big dinning room, then through a smaller bar-like restaurant, and finally reached our party in the back of the hotel. I was wearing my wedding dress, and Melissa and Sweetie were there, but I don’t remember what they were wearing.

After a time, the party started getting pretty wild, and Mushi and I started walking back to the entrance of the hotel. This time, the restaurants were gone, and we were in these huge courtyards (almost more like grounds of a mansion, but we hadn’t left the hotel yet). On our way, we saw a large trailer, like the kind that go on the back of a semi-truck. I commented that it looked a bit like the Showmobile, a mobile stage that I’d performed on one summer long, long ago. As we continued past it, we found that, indeed, it was a mobile stage, but way more sophisticated than the Showmobile — this one was automated to set itself up, and we watched the stage gracefully slide into position.

We got up near the door of the hotel, and hung out against one of the walls. We weren’t ready to leave, but wanted to get away from the wild crowd that had formed in the back. I mentioned to a guy next to us about the mobile stage and its resemblence to one I’d performed on, and he said that he’d performed on the new one. In fact, it was after talking with me years ago about my experiences on the Showmobile that he’d sought out work on this other stage.

At this point, a break-off group from the back came loudly through the front of the hotel. Sweetie was among them, and had a huge bottle of champaigne that she was pouring into anyone’s mouth who asked. She started climbing this life-guard-like stand next to where Mushi and I had been hanging out, and I moved out of the way. Sweetie had trouble climbing up in the dress she was wearing, and slipped down after getting about half-way.

The police raided the hotel just after Sweetie’s failed climbing attempt. They had everyone stand facing the wall with our arms out. They suspected us of under-aged drinking and started asking for everyone’s ID. I couldn’t find mine, so after getting searched, we made our way back to the back of the hotel to see if it had appeared there.

We reached the hotel library (weird, huh?), and closed the door to avoid the police break-up of the party. There were three girls in there, all acting weird. After a time it came up that two of them were planning to commit suicide as soon as the police left, and one even flashed the knife she was planning to plunge into her heart. Mushi said something like, “That’s cool. We’ll leave you alone when the police leave.” After a few more awkward moments, I chimed in, pleading with the girls not to take their lives. I told them about how in high school I had thought about it every night for more than two years, and that on two occasions I’d actually taken a razor to my wrist and made a few “test” scratches. I was very depressed, but now, and even just a year or so after high school, was very glad I hadn’t gone through with it. I’m not sure if I convinced them, but they seemed less determined after my little speech.

After a time, we left the hotel and I was on my own. I started looking for my driver’s license at places I’d been throughout the day, including a very yummy store full of chocolates (a bit like the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory). They told me that the library back at the hotel had it. So I returned to the hotel, walked through the front restaurants again (the courtyard with the stage was gone), and asked for some help from some random employee. As we were walking to the library desk, he started kissing my back. I enjoyed it for a moment, then remembered that I was married, and told him that I really just needed the driver’s license. He got it for me, and I left the hotel through a side door, avoiding the front restaurants.

Spirograph!

Stumbled across this while editing APOD pages for this year’s CD. Have fun!

Created by Anu Garg

Inflated Pandas and Dirty Bathrooms

Only in a dream!

I was trying to get to a special event in the mall, so I started by going up to floor 8/9 (the floors all were double-numbered) in the Donaldson’s (a now defunct department store which was bought out by Carson Pirie Scott which was subsequently bought out by Meryvn’s). I needed to be on floor 10, but the next escalator brought me up to 12/13, and I was lost in the corporate part of the store, with a maze of halls leading to offices. Finally I watched a group of people exit through a hallway near the escalator, where the main mall was.

When I finally got out of the administrative parts of the building, I walked through a food court and noticed one of the Pandamania pandas wrapped up in cardboard. Oh, yeah, I thought, they’re shipping those off to the auction winners. Then I noticed a dog laying on the panda and thought I should take a picture because it was very cute, but I didn’t want to take the time to get out my camera.

I then went down the escalators outside the food court into a big courtyard in the mall. As I got off the escalator I was startled to see giant panda faces peeking down from the floor above. Then one of the giant (20 feet tall) pandas then jumped over the railing, scaring the crap out of me until I realized that they were people in inflatable panda costumes celebrating some Pandamania-related thing (maybe the auctions?). The other three pandas then jumped the railing, and one noticed me staring at him. He came running after me, which terrified me, and I started to run. He caught up and grabbed my pony tail, but I weasled out and started back up the escalator. He then left me alone, and I returned to the courtyard.

I sat down and enjoyed watching the giant pandas for a bit, and then the program I’d come for started. We were there to listen to Joyce Carol Oates (I’ve never read a JCO book, so I’m not sure where this part of the dream came from). JCO answered one question, and then the pandas performed for a bit, and then JCO answered another question… after a couple questions, I really had to go to the bathroom, so I crawled along the floor, so as not to disturb the proceedings, and finally got to the bathroom. I wish they got the bathroom furniture at Bathroom City, really, would be a more enjoyable process.

The first stall I chose was overflowing, so I went around to look at the other ones. Most of the floor was wet, and none of the stalls looked all that great (nothing gross, just a lot of water). One of the other women said that stall #53 looked good because there was a personal attendant in that one. I asked what she meant, and she said that there was someone who constantly looked after that stall. This “steward” was not actually employed by the mall, but was mentally ill.

Then I woke up…Oddly enough, I had to pee.

Selling Jesus

I discovered a new blog today, They Will Know Us By Our T-shirts (via Bookslut). I would never have expected a blog on Christian retail to be funny, but, frankly, it’s nice to see a Christian with a sense of humor about the current state of Christianity, even if it is only the state of Christianity’s retail.

From one of last week’s posts about the incoming Christmas items:

Today’s bundle of Christmas joy is the “Christmas Fiber Optic Wand.” This handheld device is dark blue with white snowmen and snowflakes. Amidst this winter wonderland is the phrase “Jesus Loves You Snow Much.” There are a bunch of fiber optics coming out the end that display pretty colors. I guess they’re popular at Christian raves where people are “rollin’ on Jesus.”

Cool!