I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day. He’s a partier and tends to drunk dial. Seeing an opportunity for another enlightening post for the blog, I gave him my number.

Now mind you, we were on IM. He started laughing and refused to take it, expressing the desire to not be blogged about.

See how well that worked? 🙂

So here’s the reason I brought this up… how many of you have friends who read your blog? Do you not write about them on purpose, to protect them and/or your friendship, or does that not even enter into your thought process?

The conference ended successfully earlier this evening. We are each at our respective homes, completely exhausted. There was no going out, sadly, due to massive 2-hour traffic and the coworker falling fast asleep in the passenger seat.

After almost falling fast asleep myself, I regained some energy long enough to unpack my cellphone charger and check my email. And now, just realizing I must leave my bed and go find my brace (carpal tunnel—lovely job I have).

Argh.

One of my favorite things to have for breakfast is peanut butter and banana toast. It’s one of my dad’s favorite things to eat and he’s been feeding it to my sister and I since we were babies—well, the peanut butter at least. He eats peanut butter right off the spoon, and when my sister was a baby, he fed it to her that way. Apparently I was a little less enthralled by that concept, so I stuck to the toast.

Moving along. Anyway, so last night I had a discussion with a good friend of mine regarding which was better: creamy peanut butter or crunchy. Mind you, he also refrigerates his ketchup. Sigh. Fortunately we came to the decision that if we ever decided to hook up, we’d buy two bottles of ketchup. One for the fridge, one for the pantry. (Compromise—the bedrock of our relationship. :P) I don’t remember how we got to peanut butter, but he’s a crunchy fan and I prefer smooth.

Fortunately, our kids (if again) will eat non-refrigerated ketchup and creamy peanut butter. Why, you ask?

‘Cause momma’s always right.

Seeing as how the ketchup question sparked such a debate (yeah right, all of you loonies refrigerate—:P)…. what say you? Creamy or crunchy?

Four years ago I was still in Washington. My grandmother was living with us and after my mom woke me up, I went downstairs and sat with her on the couch, watching the news.

Three years ago I was in Bennington, VT. I had left NYC the day before. It was just too crowded and heartwrenching. Bennington had a tribute that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Two years ago I had just moved to the Northeast. The memorial on campus was moving and as I heard the stories of friends who had lost loved ones, I cried—it was as if it had happened all over again.

One year ago I was late to class.

One day ago I forgot that today was that day.

“We must never forget… I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. ” —Winston Churchill

Cellphones
Vodka
Cigarettes (yeah, yeah.. still trying to quit)
Email
Etc.

I found this through goldenfiddle.

It’s 197 pictures that chronicle Hurricane Katrina, from boarded up windows in the French Quarter to the immediate aftermath of broken windows and downed trees to the floodwaters rising to him stealing a truck and fleeing the city. It’s phenomenal and to me, it explains why so many people stayed as long as they did.

Check it out.

My parents are coming to visit in a few weeks—a little under five, to be exact. Every time my mom calls, she tells me how excited she is and how she just can’t wait. They’ll be here for 10 days. The first four we’re planning to spend in Pennsylvania for a festival that my mom has wanted to go to for years. She grew up there and we haven’t been back in two years, since my grandmother passed away. We three are going to drive there. Together. In my Jeep. Eight hours one way. Yep.

My dad and I have been on a couple of road trips together, and it went remarkably well, so I’m not too concerned. It’s the actual being at my apartment—together, staying here 24/7—that freaks me out a little. I think Goose and I will get much cozier in October. 🙂

Anyway, in other news, the O.C. premiered tonight. It was good, but not what I expected. And they added a new character and I am not a fan at all. Reunion then debuted… it seems kinda interesting, but mainly TV shows like these two drive me nuts. Why, you ask? Because while suspense is fabulous and all, I’d really prefer to just hear the whole story. This is why I love books—and get irritated by series’ of books. I can sit and read an entire book in just a couple of hours, and I will. Every time. But if there is a series of books, I will hold off until the entire series is written and published, that way I can seamlessly flow from one to the next. (Or rather, I try to. But if it’s a good story—TV or book—I just can’t help myself.)

Yes, I have issues. What can I say? I like to know everything and I’m all about instant gratification.

Hi. How y’all doin’? I just got home from work about an hour ago. Sigh. I was going to blog then, but I had a highly entertaining phone call that occupied my attention. 🙂

Hmmm… we drank at lunch today. That made us a little.. flirty. Yep. IM was not my friend today. There should a be a blocker button that doesn’t allow me to IM people after I’ve been drinking…. lol. Or email.

OH, much more importantly, new songs at iTunes. Yay! Ben Taylor has a new CD out.. love him to bits and pieces.

No game plan has, as of yet, been established re: the getting laid. But there is definitely one in the works. It needs a name, like Operation Fuzzy Slippers.. unless someone has something better..? One of you is far better at coming up with names… you know who you are. Come up with something fabulous, ‘k? 😉

Far too sleepy to write anymore.

I think my toaster is broken. Kaput. Finished. I put a piece of bread in there, along with an egg dish (it’s a toaster oven) and then I jumped in the shower. The egg dish had already cooked most of the way through, so I tossed some jalapenos and cheese on top and left it in the oven. (So the cheese would melt as the bread toasted.. come on, don’t get bogged down with the details, stay with me here.)

The toaster did not turn off! WTF! So as I am toweling off I think, hmm, something is.. burning? Yes, the bread/toast was now a smoking charcoal lump, and the smoke was billowing from the edges of the toaster. In my good sense (read: stupid), I opened the toaster to drag out the offending slice and lo and behold, the smoking got worse. Now I am frantically running about the apartment, opening windows and checking the ceiling fans, hoping to god that the fire alarm doesn’t go off.

It didn’t.

Now I am concerned. At which point will a fire alarm actually go off? The damn thing was maybe ten feet from the toaster and it just sat there, doing nothing. This all happened 20 minutes ago—there is still a thin haze in my apartment and the damn thing still hasn’t gone off.

Is it broken? Has it died? Is this normal? Anyone?!

There was drinking last night. I think I drank an entire bottle of the Goose. My version of a hangover involves waking up at dawn (hello 6 AM, haven’t seen you in awhile), and drinking a bottle of water.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist died last night. The world’s about to get more interesting as President B now has two vacancies to fill. Oy.

Bush also sent 7,000 more troops to New Orleans. 200 New Orleans police have walked off the job and two committed suicide. The Superdome has been evacuated, but the Convention Center hasn’t.

I love the news. One of the best ways to figure out what’s going on around the country, aside from reading every newspaper (or getting each RSS feed), is to check out Slate.com’s A Summary of What’s In the Daily Newspapers. They do one every day.

OK, that’s my soapbox for the morning. Going back to bed now… mainly because if I stayed awake, I’d try to remember what else I did last night. Huh. I recall teaching a friend of mine how to flirt with the waitress, but I think that backfired..? I dunno. I was flirting with the bartender. 🙂