Riding the Bike with One Pedal.

Category: mutterings (Page 3 of 3)

Hi! (I get enthusiastic after long separations.)

Enthusiastic, that would be a good “E” word, were I keeping up with that Alphabet Soup project… :) In any event, I could feel it in me, bubbling out, when I met up with my co-workers at LaGuardia on Monday. I’d spent the day traveling, but by myself, with little chitty-chat and moving amongst a sea of strangers. I remember when I first had a self-selected roommate, after college, and I chirpingly greeted her in the morning. (She was not a morning person, and I was more of one then than I am now…) I figured out that I’d spent so much of my life alone, or with just my parents, that upon seeing someone else in my life sphere, I became quite gregarious and happy for the company.

Now, I just hate people in general.

(That’s not true.) I would, however, enjoy the use of a taser while traveling. Not for nefarious purposes, but more for that person who thinks it’s perfectly fine to come to a screeching halt in the middle of the main-traffic-drag of the busiest airport in the world. The problem is, the longer the day got, the less judicious I would be. I would have taken out two people alone flying back to KC for their insistence on slowly putting their three bags filled with Walt Disneyworld purchases into the overhead compartments, rearranging them, with no sense of urgency whatsoever. Actually, only one of them was doing the stowing, the other one? Standing in the aisle observing. I might have half-body-checked her as she finally realized she needed to step back into her seat.  Might.

New York is a really kick-ass place, I love the energy and motion and the seventy-billion options you have, though it can get a bit overwhelming.  If I had the chance to go back in time and invest in two things? Parking and scaffolding. There’s a lot of scaffolding, and parking charges are crazy! We had drinks & snacks with one of our clients in Bryant Park, and it was just lovely, the atmosphere. On our walk there, I was bringing up the rear (that’s what we do, phat girls, we bring up the rear and take the pressure off everyone to slow their pace to ours.) I got waylaid a bit, waiting for a couple tourists to get their photos taken, and then I strolled by a Hispanic couple, her arms draped around his neck, as they stood in this little patch of green in the concrete jungle. They looked at me, I looked at them, she turned as I passed and said, “Your eyes are really pretty.”

So much for all those New Yawkers being asshats, eh?

I’d love to have a trip where I could stay an extra day or two, just to do things at my own pace, have the Wo by my side, to see some things for the first time together, to see his face as he drinks it all in.  We had dinner at a Belgian bar, and then on our walk back to the parking garage, ended up going through Times Square. It’s a lot cleaner now, I’ll give ’em that – it’s been 15+ years since I was there. I’ll get the photos off my phone, at some point!

Well, I’ve gotten derailed numerous times trying to write this, so I’m giving up – my concentration is shot, I’m still “hung-over” from the very long days of travel & meetings, and I’m ready to have a good dinner with my sweetie. I made the choice to get Papa Murphy’s pizza last night, and while it’s a “10” on appearance and toppings, it was about a “1” on flavor – I couldn’t believe how much it tasted like.. nothing. Uber-disappointing. And I was disappointed today on another matter entirely, so I’ve had enough.  Tomorrow is Friday, I’m going to strive for stress-free right on into the weekend. Hope yours is as well!

Holy Filezilla, Batman!

I have long-professed my desire to be more nerdy. Probably from the beautiful actors in “Hackers“. In any event, I still have to do my blog roll, BUT, BUT, I upgraded to the current WordPress – Mike (of Monday’s comments, and speaking of Monday, boy howdy, we sure proved that we aren’t a political blog here, though I’m going to get around to more politics in a minute) – Mike was kind enough to send me some technical links, which I completely botched installing. Mainly the WP auto-updater. I put it in and Poof! Bye-bye website. Couldn’t for the life of me straighten it out. So. I went old-school. Line-by-line, read the instructions on how to install the upgrade, followed them diligently, and then – I do believe successfully – also installed the “Subscribe to comments” plug-in Mike had sent my way as well. I am a little rat-a-tat-tat machine-gun style with all of this, notably the part where I just DELETED entire folders and files. I was pretty sure I had a backup. Heh.  I attribute some of my shoot-em-up approach to the fact I lost most of last Saturday creating a CNAME re-direct for the Wants & Kneeds storefront, which apparently negated my hosting services at directNIC, and once they figured out what I had done, POOF! No worky, nothin’. I am now also adept at opening and appending numerous trouble tickets in their customer service section! And I’m just going to have to live with the absence of a redirect.  Maybe. I’m still waggling my eyebrows at that one.  However, I’ve become quite handy with the ol’ Filezilla, a free FTP program.

SO! I have a lot of Random Orts building up, with pictures even, so I will save that for another day, BUT, I will have a small triumphant dance on Phill Kline’s loss over in Kansas yesterday. God, that man makes me crazy. I firmly believe he is the Right to Life’s version of Joseph McCarthy, and he abused his position of power mightily to further his own political beliefs and agenda, all on the taxpayers’ dime.  Phill? I don’t care if you don’t agree with Roe v. Wade. IT’S THE LAW. As a public official, it is your duty to uphold the law, not squirrel away confidential medical records from your last job as Attorney General, and attempt to wield your limited scope of power like a bludgeon on the law.  Now there’s talk he’ll go into politics, and I’m sure he’ll have the support of his fervent followers (as I heard this morning on KCUR, pledging to support him in his “good fight”).  Well, good riddance is what I say, and I will point out that it was you, YOU in the first place, who motivated me to donate to NARAL, and I’ve continued to do so every year. Perhaps your skill set is needed in Topeka.

Harrumph and Triumph.

Blogolution

So, Sue tagged me with the Blog Evolution Meme – basically to write about how your blog has evolved over time. It’s an interesting question, because obviously I have evolved & adapted to numerous changes since I started this thing – and the truth be told, back when I paid attention to my Geocities site, I blogged about my knitting projects & even had some rants & raves on there – that goes waaaay back! So it’s always been a mixture of humor, stories – both memories and current events, ranting and raving, and knitting. After last year’s grueling journey of losing my father rapidly to cancer & grappling with the ensuing grief, I’d say that’s probably the biggest change here. All the grieving and the weeping and the clawing at the pain. Not necessarily a high-readership sell, I know – but in the end, even with a small audience, I can’t mask who I am and what I’m going through.

This particular blog has been around since July 2004. I was blogging only for me in the beginning, and maybe Kristin, because she was the only person I knew who read my blog. Then I made a comment on Dooce, before she “went pro”, and got some readers who actually have stuck around. (Keeses!) I didn’t even tell my husband about my blog at first, maybe because I wasn’t ready to have a Real! Live! Audience! I had to face at night. Now it feels comfortable, and he even chides me if I don’t blog. I think it’s good to always feel like there’s someone else out there who’s going to read this, because a blog is not a diary. It can be, but it should be called “Word” on your computer and not published, unless you want the fallout from such a thing. We all have those things we’d like to say, and things we’d like to write, and dark mean thoughts that are covered in grimy motor oil and they stain everything they touch. That’s why putting those things out on the internet isn’t the greatest idea, because the written word is a lovely, lovely thing – but it still is subject to great interpretation, and people spend lifetimes dissecting the meaning and symbolism behind the written words.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on and on (another thing that HASN’T changed!) and I should probably quit. If this has gotten you to think about your blog & you want to write about your own Blog Evolution, run with it! It was a great question – and I’ll be interested to read your thoughts, too!

Clearly A Fraud

So, last Thursday I had my one-month follow-up eye exam to the Lasik Experience, and because my appointment was at 9:45, I found myself with a little time before I had to be at the doctor’s office. Since the carwash line was OOC (at 9:15! What do all these people do? There was a police officer directing traffic! 9:15! On a Thursday!), I decided to go to the grocery store. I needed to get a few ingredients to pump up the guacamole I was taking to Kristin’s, and then something random for the agency potluck lunch on Friday. It was a fast trip, and I headed for the checkout….to discover that they’ve replaced several lanes with Self-Checkout and I admit it, I hate those things. Especially if I have more than five items. There’s too much hecticness & rushing involved, plus, I’d rather have some interaction with a human being, because there’s so much more opportunity to get the Blog Fodder….. And I’ve been going to this Price Chopper for several years, and they seem to retain a lot of their workers – I spotted the nicest bagger in the universe (Clarence) and headed for his lane. I found myself behind a woman who was wearing her matchy-matchy track suit, a lot of makeup, and she was going for the Casual Housewife from Leawood look. (Leawood being a nice affluent community just over the hill.) Except instead of an iPod, she had one of those big radio stereo earphones on. All of this wasn’t notable, except I had plenty of time to notice her once it came time for the cashier to ring up her coupons! Because every other one went “BAAAAAARRRRRRNNNNNNNNTTTT” and was rejected by the computer. And she kept pretending to be Just Now Noticing! and was very dismissive, kept saying, “Can’t you just give it to me?” “They usually just give it to me.” He asked her if she’d bought two of the item on the coupon. “Two? No. I bought just one. Can’t you just give it to me anyway?” Same thing with another. Did you buy five? “Well….. I’m sure I bought at least four. Can’t you just give me the coupon? They always give it to me.” This continued, involving a manager (twice) and I watched, somewhat agog, that this poser was committing COUPON FRAUD! Right in front of everyone! She even tried to catch my eye, as if to enlist support against the Ridiculousness! she was enduring. Oh mah god. I told the cashier he handled it well, for what it was worth. Since I had NO coupons, my transaction went quite quickly, and I was able to see what car she was driving – I expected a Suzuki Samarai, for some reason – nope, a PT Cruiser. I decided instead of “Lovely in Leawood”, she was more “Roughshod in Raytown”.

But, the really good news of the day? I have 20/20 vision, both near & far. (Who else immediately thinks of Grover when you hear “Near and Far” together?) And I even read some of the 20/15 letters. It’s like magic. Really, really expensive magic. Even with a coupon.

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