Stormy Adventures

Okay, first thing I want to say is I am not scared of storms. I think they are really amazing. The air is almost electric right before, which is super cool. The air lights up, the thunder sounds like a hardcore party, only better smelling (after the rain). It's just awesome, love storms.

A few weeks ago I got caught in a really bad storm (it was totally a tornado but since a twister never touched down I can't call it that). I was at a lovely bridal shower when the tornado alarm went off. My mom told me to drive home, quickly, before the storm hit so I could put our baby turkeys inside. I immediately went outside (being the obedient daughter that I am *cough*) and got in my car. Walking from the hall to my car I was seriously steaming, it was like a bazillion degrees without being sunny. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I was half way home driving on a country road when I looked at the sky above me. It was aqua/dark greenish. My Dad always tells us that if we see a green sky it means a tornado is about to hit. I always thought it was supposed to be like lime green but w/e, it was green.

Then my mom calls, she left a few minutes after me, and I tell her to turn around because the storm is getting worse. I was a little frantic maybe cause the sky looked really menacing. Then it start pouring sheets of water. I couldn't see anything with my windshield on full blast so I pull into the first driveway I see. I tried to open my door but there was huge gusts of wind and I didn't want to stand at these people's door waiting for them to let me in. So like any smart, worried girl I call my dad, there was a horrible connection so I didn't really talk to him but he seemed kinda worried about my mom. After losing signal with him I called my brother, the 2nd option in any emergency. After whimpering (not crying!) about my situation for a little bit, he tells me I should try to drive home. I told him him in the nicest possible way that's he's insane and I'm not driving anywhere. I really don't think he understood my situation at all. Thankfully right after I hung up with him the person that lived in the house pulled in behind me and started running for the house. I kicked open my door and followed her it. It was a little awkward because I basically ran into her house but she was very understanding and said I did the right thing.

So for the next 15 minutes I shivered in these random peoples basement (I got soaked when I ran from my car to the house). Finally it was over and the Dad of the family got home and said there were lots of power lines down. He followed me home and I was very thankful. My mom and 2 sisters got home at the same time and they had down the same thing as me. Great minds think alike.

Lessons Learned: Don't mess with Really Bad Storms (read, tornado), and my Mom should have listened to me about turning around. Also, brothers really aren't that much help when you're scared but at least they answer their phones and try to give helpful suggestions.

Anyone have some fun storm adventures? Share it!

Weddings

To my followers, I am so apologetic that I didn't get to post last week. I meant to write in my free time but I never got to it.

I have noticed significant broadcasting about England's Royal wedding. Today I'm gonna add another take on the Royal Wedding and weddings in general.  

Thoughts on the Royal Wedding
I thought it was nice. I was surprised that her bouquet was so small and almost boring. It wasn't the extravagant bouquet I imagined.The cake more than made up for the disappointing bouquet. The cake was awesome. Is it a royal requirement to have only shades of white and cream for the colors? Her lovely sister was dressed in ivory, that must be a first for bridesmaids.  It was very elegant which I suppose they wanted but I think it could have handled a little color.  The wedding dress was gorgeous. I don't like the strapless wedding gowns that everyone wears and if you look at places like Davids Bridal (which I think is way too generic) you can only find strapless or halter tops. Oh, and you can put tiny straps on if you pay extra. Anyway, I don't mean to get into why I don't like Davids Bridal. They occasionally have some pretty dresses and it's nice that they have a large selection. Even if you don't want a dress there you can try the dresses on and find the cut that looks good on your body type. So I'm not saying I would never walk in the store. Just that I probably won't buy my dress there. Not that I'm gonna worry about that for a few yrs. Hopefully by the time I get married Kate Middleton's Wedding Dress style will have taken off and I will have no problem finding the perfect dress. What's your perfect dress?

Sorry to my guys, my blog is a bit girly today. Maybe I'll write about Osama Bin Ladens controversial death next post.


   

Why Are We Buying Junk?

I am so disgusted that you when you go into a store you can not find something that lasts. We have all this amazing technology and yet we can't desgin something that will last?

Someone told me that they have engineers to specifically design objects so they will break right after the warranty runs out. Sometimes the engineers are so talented they can design it to break the day after the warranty runs out. Dishwashers, clothes dryers, copiers, cell phones are some good examples.

Even if you buy the warranty it's almost pointless because chances are that the warranty will expire around the same time the item breaks. I had a cell phone that was working great until the month before the warranty ran out. I guess the engineers weren't doing their job right. However they were doing a grand job when our stove died just days after the warranty ran out.  

I think as consumers we should start demanding better products. As the consumers we have the right to demand better products. Companies will not keep selling junk if no one buys it.  If the product is a bird brush consumers are not going to buy it because birds don't need to be brushed . That's a really dorky example but you get the point. The same thing applies here, if we stop buying the junky products maybe the product developers will develop a product that is decent. My Grandma has a copier from the 90's and it still works great. I have the "best" copier from 2010 that just broke. Isn't it great how far we've come? I believe it is possible to make a good product that lasts a long time. We have the resources we just need to put it into action.

AIR FOR SALE!?!?

Recently I saw a blog about air for sale. Seriously, I'm not kidding. The other day I was browsing through blogs and 'Original Canned Air From Prague' ( http://airofprague.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html ) popped up. It advertises canned air from Prague (it's a big city in Europe)  as being able to relieve stress, cure homesickness and fight nostalgia (I'm not sure how that last one works but w/e). Don't forget that it only uses the air from the most popular places in the country (see below). I'm not even sure if these 'popular' places exist.

Air Contains:
20% - air from Wenceslas Square
20% - air from Charles Bridge
25% - air from Old Town Square
15% - air from Prague Castle
10% - air from Lesser Town
10% - air from Zlata Street.

Would you buy canned air?

There are comments on the page that lead me to believe that it's a joke for April 1st but is it possible that selling air could take off?

We pay for everything else. . .



This is the link to the page: http://airofprague.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html

Morning in the Life. . .

Okay writers block is gone. It lasted a a very long 5 minutes.

Today I was getting ready for school. I usually don't spend much time at it because 1. Sleeping is more important 2. I can do everything really fast and look about the same as the girls who spend hours primping 3. Laying out your clothes the night before saves tons of time. I get up at 8 and have to leave the house at 8:30 with a packed lunch. This morning I got up slightly earlier (7:55) so I could wash my hair, it wasn't dirty but it dried weird the day before and I didn't feel like having bed head on the last day before spring break. It's just not a good look to have people remember you by. After I washed my hair and brushed my teeth I made a bowl of cereal and threw on some frozen blueberries, then I started frying some eggs. I still needed to do my makeup so I left the eggs on low and went into my room. I noticed that my foundation was nearly gone and I saw my sisters in the bathroom. I grabbed it and went to work. I only put foundation on at home because during the school year I become pretty skilled at putting on my other makeup in the car. I went back to frying the eggs and make a fried egg sandwich for my lunch. It is so delicious, let me know if you want the recipe.

By 8:40 I'm slightly behind schedule but it's not that big of a deal since I'm usually early. I make the mistake of looking at my foundation in the car and am horrified. My face looks orange and my neck looks white! I wasn't going for the candy corn look. I grab a napkin and try to blend it in more while balancing my blueberry cereal  that's about to spill all over the place (good thing I was wearing a purple shirt). It comes off in big smears all over the napkin. It's really kinda disgusting. Plus it's really hard to fix foundation while driving that's why it's the only thing I put on at home. As I swerve back and forth (good thing I take the back roads) I manage to blend the orange and white together (mostly by wiping off the orange). So finally I am on my way to school. I'm still on time, more or less, then the unimaginable happens. There is not one train but two trains in my way. They are the really long annoying kind too. I get to class 15 minutes later than usual. Thank you Trains, I appreciate it. . .

Writers Block

I'm having writers block today. It's an intense state of mind, for real. It's like you can't put together a story that anyone would want to read. I'll possibly write something interesting over spring break.

Rant On Authors That Kill Their Characters

 Doesn't it suck when books are sad? I personally think that authors should NOT kill a character after they make you like the character. Like seriously if you're going to kill off one of the main characters at least make it be the bad guy. Is it really that hard to not kill someone in a book? I think authors could easily make the character almost die or something and get the same effect.

I do sort of understand that books with happy endings are very predictable and slightly boring but happy endings are still the best. In the book I just read to bring this rant to surface the author killed the guy that should have been saved. It wasn't even a quick death it was long and drawn out and you could have sworn that he was going to be rescued at the last second.

I'm trying not to spoil the book for anyone who would like to read it. I'm actually only half done and it is an intriguing read... If you want to know the title let me know.

Rant On Dishes

Do you loath doing the dishes? Does it seem like you're constantly washing them? Does it seem like for every dish you wash two appear in it's place?Do you stand at the sink for hours? Is the dishwasher always full wayyy before you finish cleaning up?

I answered yes to all those questions. I think washing dishes is the worst possible household job. I'm all for keeping a tidy house and cleaning the kitchen after meals but  I seriously despise doing the dishes for hours on end. I rather do just about anything else, clean the bathroom with a tooth brush, wash the kitchen floor, whatever. Because at least the bathroom will stay clean for a few days. There is never an end to the dishes, I think that is why it's my least favorite job.

Seriously if you have a family over the size of four or your mom loves to cook from scratch  you know how it is. Hours of sweat and work for little reward. The kitchen will begin stacking up dishes again 5 minutes after you're done.

Let me know it you can relate! We gotta unite and stay strong even when doing dishes gets us down!

Chicago (The Rainy City)

After making the hard decision to go shopping instead of exploring historic land marks. We set off. After five minutes of walking down the 3, (read 6) flights of stairs we made it out of the building to find it was raining, hard. My sister was a genius and brought with her a nice little umbrella, I was not so lucky. It was cold and icy rain was soaking through my clothes. After some walking and complaining we decided to stop for a fruit smoothie. Smoothies are my favorite. They make the whole world a better place to live.  The smoothie we got had tapioca beads in them. They were just the right size to fit through the extra large straw. The first one scared me because it was this big black thing coming through the straw towards my face and I didn't know what to expect. They were weird, I'm still not sure if I love or hate them. 


After the refreshing smoothie we both felt tons better about walking around in the rain. We were energized! We took the bus into downtown Chicago and we see tons of shops we want to visit. We go into this little shop with really expensive crafty items. It was the coolest craft shop I've ever seen. I didn't think I even liked crafts until I saw this store. 


After the cool craft shop we (mostly me) are starving.  Since almost everyone who has visited Chicago raves about Chicago pizza we head to Giorgi's (or something like that) and order a deep dish pizza. After waiting for almost 40 minutes with no appetizers our pizza arrives. Half olive, half spinach. It was good but not nearly as good as we imagined and it was a bit of a downer to be left waiting so long. Later in the day we found out it was a chain restaurant too. Chain Restaurants are never as good as they advertise, "Worlds Best Pizza" I think not. 


When we finally get out of the restaurant, we headed over to Nordstrom Rack. *Angels Sing* We have arrived in a little paradise. There is racks and racks of the cutest, most comfortable shoes ever!They had our sizes too! It was amazing. Neither I nor my sister enjoy shoe shopping because we usually can't find all three of those qualities in one pair of shoes. The clothes were adorable too. Plus everything was on sale. Time flew by and before we knew it we had to drag ourselves away before we did something stupid like buy 10 pairs of shoes. It was extremely difficult. We visit a few more stores on the way home but nothing compared to Nordstrom Rack. 


More Later. . .

Chicago (The Windy City)

My 2nd oldest sister, just moved to Chicago for her student teaching. I talked to her on the Thursday before presidents day and we talked about what a perfect weekend it would have been for me to come visit her since neither of us had school on Monday.We hang up after a few more minutes and I didn't think much about it. Friday I wake up and think to myself "I'm going to Chicago!"

I want to let everyone know right now that I am a VERY determined person. Once I set my mind on something I usually make it happen. It can be a good characteristic and a bad one. Just ask my mom. :p.

That night I bought a bus Ticket for Chicago and I left on Saturday morning. I was the last person on the mega bus and I went up to the 2nd level with all my luggage. FYI: When the driver asks you if you want to put your suitcase in the luggage area, say yes. After I banged everyone on my way towards the back of the bus I got settled in next to this old woman, and tried to ignore the glares from the people I just hit with my bags. The first half of the 4 and a half hr drive went pleasantly enough after I got settled in. I read my book (it was very interesting!) and minded my own business. Then we had a rest stop, I ate my lunch, stretched, used the bathroom, and was looking forward to getting back to my book.

*Ominous Music Starts, like the kind in The Twilight Zone* The old lady starts talking to me, at first I'm polite and try to look her in the eye as she's talking even though it's making my neck sore since she is next to me. After what feels like 5 hrs I start zoning out and occasionally murmur some non committal sounds.  When I look at my clock I see that's it's been barely 30 minutes since the rest stop, I almost thought I was in the twilight zone. The lady is still talking and talking and talking and talking some more. She reminds me of Uncle Rico from the Napoleon Dynamite movie. Stuck in the past and living in a constant state of regret. It was depressing. It was a VERY long bus ride.

After I was blessed with a pounding headache thanks to the rank smell of the old Lady's breath I finally arrived in Chicago! I have never been happier to arrive somewhere. I was free! I find my sister after a few confused phone calls and we head for her apartment.

Walking...walking...more walking, my sister can't find where the right bus stop is. I packed light but for a 4 day trip you can't pack light enough where you won't feel the weight after 40 minutes. Did I mention it was really cold too? After 2 hrs, most of which was comprised of walking we arrived at her apartment. Of course, there was more walking after we got to the building. We crawled up 3 flights of stairs (more like six flights because there are 2 sets of stairs for every floor) with the last of our energy. I drop my stuff, which I had begun to extremely dislike, and flopped on the couch to recover a little. After about an hour of this I decide we are being way lame (it's my first time in Chicago and I'm wasting it on being lazy!) and need to go out for dinner. My favorite food is Mediterranean and my sisters says there is this great place not to far away. Food always makes me feel better.

After a relatively short trip compared to earlier in the day we arrived at a lovely middle eastern restaurant and order some delicious appetizers and decide to split a platter of meats. It was SSSOOO good but I'm not going into detail because a. it'll make me hungrier than I am right now and b. some things you have to experience for your self. Like while we were there the guy sitting at the table next to ours was talking to himself. He had a bluetooth on but it was on his other ear so I couldn't see it and I thought it was quite entertaining.

After our wonderful dinner we head back to the apartment and meet some of her room mates. Then we watch movies and relax the rest of the night. We head to bed early'ish and make a plan to do something fun the next day. My sister gave me the option of museums or shopping. Let's just say it wasn't a very hard decision...

More Later. . .

Evil Kitty: Part 2 (Nightmare Comes to a Close)

The 2nd night wasn't as bad as the first but it was definitely on my list of all things sucky.

As I stated in Part 1 I believe a cats job is to be cute and cuddly, catch rodents and stay outside. The cat I watched is seriously messed up. Here is some of the reasons; a. he head butts you when he wants attention (HARD, I didn't even know cats can give you bruises) b. he bites you when you pet him wrong, *ouch* c. he's a scary stalker, you try watching TV with a 20 pound cat that looks like he wants to eat you for a snack d. he makes annoying cat sounds. e. I get nervous just seeing his cute little face, uge.

Wednesday night was my last night. I am very pleased to announce that I survived the King of bad kitty behavior.  It was tough and I may have some battle scars but I prevailed! This is my last blog about cats for awhile, I need some time to recover.

Evil Kitty: Part 1

This week I was asked to house sit for a family friend who was going out of town for about a week. I agreed readily enough because 1. I recently went to Chicago and for those of you who haven't been there...well let's just say I ate most of my money 2. I was thinking that it'd be easy to sleep there and let the cat out once in awhile. How young and silly I was.

I arrive Wednesday night, the owner is leaving in the morning and she begins to give me instructions. She says that the cat (more like the King) likes his space, you can not pet the cat, he pets you...?!?!?!? That's crazy, the purpose of a cat is to stay outside, catch mice and other nasty things, and be cute and cuddly. The 'King' obviously didn't go to 'How To Be A Good Kitty School.'

The owner goes on and on about his schedule. He has more needs than I do! He must ALWAYS have a full dish of dry food, tuna on a separate plate and fresh water. If he needs anything else he will let me know,  I just have to listen to him, "He's a very smart cat." There is one last thing *sigh* He doesn't use a litter box because it's beneath him. I have to let him out when he is by the door and let him back in before I go to  bed. Easy enough, or so I think.

Night 1: The owner goes to bed early and I let the cat outside and it comes back a few minutes later. Fairly straight forward, easy, whatever. I go watch TV for a while (she has cable and since we don't have any channels at my house I was pretty excited).  The cat starts yowling by the door at 11'ish and so I let him out. At 12 I'm more than ready to go to bed. One small problem, the cat is nowhere to be seen. *scary music starts to play*

I don't know what to do. If the lady wasn't there I would just leave him outside but she said not to if it was cold. So too make a long story shorter, I made myself as comfy as possible with one blanket, an uncomfortable couch and a nightmare. It was about the King and his animal friends sneaking inside and destroying the entire house. Then the owner got home and got VERY mad at me. It was not a pleasant dream. Every hour or so I woke up with a jerk and checked the door and called out for him. It was a very long night.

At about five in the morning the owner got up to start packing her car and she found a very sleepy girl on the couch (me). She started asking what I was doing and I told her that I was waiting for her cat. She said to go to bed and it was fine if he didn't come back for the night (thanks for telling me!). I ran to the room I would be staying in but not before I heard her call his name and he came prancing back in the house like he owned it. 

Firsts

This is my first blog. I was required to start one by my teacher. I am glad (deep, deep down) because as I heard about people making millions of dollars by doing almost nothing, I thought it might be kind of cool. Plus, honestly, who doesn’t love to have people focus their attention on them, even for a few minutes a day?                         

I can’t decide what I want to talk about first. I eventually want to talk about books I’ve been reading. Why I hate dishes, with a passion that is probably a little unhealthy.What Chimercial means. Everything.

 Whoever is reading this I’d love to have questions, comments and ideas. I have a lot of opinions and would love to share them with the world!