Savannah Day 4: It's a Twister!

For today's activity we were supposed to have a "cassette guided walking tour", but because I'm a big trouble making bitch, I basically told the people in charge the night before that no one wanted to do that, so instead we had more free time. We decided to go to the Savannah history museum, which was pretty lame, but I had to pretend it was at least semi-cool for the sake of the girls.

Then after lunch we went on a riverboat cruise down the Savannah river. As the boat got back to port was just when all the trouble started brewing. It began pouring down rain. Our original plan (pre-rain), was to do some more shopping on River Street and go buy pralines at the Savannah Candy Kitchen. The rain let up just as we were getting off the boat, so my travel buddies and I decided to try to make it to the candy kitchen (or at least as far towards the candy kitchen as possible.) It was fine except that there was a black sand (from where this came I'm not sure) pelting us. Luckily the wind was at our backs so we just got sandblasted in the back rather than in our face. We made it to the candy kitchen. Just then my cell rings. It's one of the other chaperones. Apparently there is a tornado warning and we have to stay in a "safe location" for the next 45 minutes. Ahh...stuck in a candy store (with an adjoining ice cream parlor) what can be better. Poor Hannah though had spent all her money. When the coast is clear, we emerge from the candy store and walk about 5 feet when a tornado siren sounds. Are you kidding me? Everyone else seems to ignore it, but since I'm a responsible adult in charge of two minors, we duck into a peanut store...because nothing goes better after sweets than a little salty. Everything was fine.

For dinner we went to the Lady and Son's (Paula Deen's restaurant), which was fabulous. Lots of yummy southern food. Though I've learned that I'm not really a big fan of collard greens. I guess I'd eat them again, but I'm not going to hunt them down. I also got really hyped up on sweet tea and peach cobbler. We didn't see any of the Deen family (though some of our group had run into Bobby Deen in the shop the day before).

After dinner was another swim party, which was basically five 13-year-olds hanging on me. FUN! At one point, I accidentally held one of the girls under water and when she told the lifeguard that I was trying to drown her, he said "I don't really blame her."

Then at around 11 pm, Hannah, Molly and I decided to have an ice cream, and wheat thins party. Then went and got a pint of Ben and Jerry's down in the hotel shop and we had wheat thins from earlier in the day. At one point, I was making little ice cream sandwiches with wheat thins and Fudge Brownie ice cream...pretty good actually. We also tried Mr. Dipolo's barbecue sauce on the wheat thins, but that wasn't as good. We made a slight mess with the chocolate ice cream on the bed spread, but I'm sure that will come out in the wash...right?

Savannah Day 3: The Birthplace

Juliette Low's birthplace was pretty much the entire reason for the trip to Savannah. I'm also pretty sure that if Juliette Low had not been born in Savannah that the city's tourism industry would be pretty much non-existent. For those of you that don't know about the birthplace, Girl Scouts need to make reservations two years in advance to have a tour and program there. We also had to make up a "pinning ceremony" which we didn't find out until we were in Savannah. I was chosen to be the adult advisor to the girls that were writing the ceremony. (Because I'm cool like that). PAINFUL! They had decided they wanted to "write a song" to go with the ceremony. Have you ever had 5 middle school girls together trying to write a song. With a little coaxing, they wrote a few new versus to an already existent song. Phew!

In the morning, we were scheduled to do a program called "Fabric, Frills, and Fashion." Or something like that. It was all about fashion through the years (corsets, and bustles and all that.) We got to try on corsets...well, the girls were supposed to try on the corsets and somehow I got drawn in too. I think the corseting lesson had the opposite effect that it was supposed to. Instead of seeing how constricting and uncomfortable they were, most of the girls thought they looked pretty good on and I can see corseting making a comeback in the Harrisburg area. Even I wished the lady would have pulled it tighter (perhaps using the foot in the middle of the back method), thought Girl Scouting tends to frown on broken ribs. We did decided the corseting someone to death would be a pretty cool method of murder. Just hook the strings up to a winch and crank away.

After lunch we did a tour of the birthplace (snooze fest) and the ceremony. For dinner we went to the River House Restaurant which I wasn't real impressed with (except they had AWESOME pecan cookies). We introduced some of the girls to letterboxing. They had a fun time with one of them as we had to distract a street artist whose stand was right beside where the box was hidden. Then we went on a ghost tour. It started off a little rocky as the tour guide starting yelling at some of the girls about their use of a Ouija board. After that she was great. We have one girl on the tour that swears to this day that a ghost cat rubbed against her leg during the tour. Hey, who am I to say that it didn't. I didn't have any ghosts touch me or anything, but I did end up with a pretty weird picture. If you notice, there's a branch or something on the tree that is glowing bright orange. Who knows!

Savannah Day 2: I Want To Be A Pirate

Before I get into my pirate dream realized, I have to give brief props to the BASS outlet shop in Hershey. My mom bought me new luggage for Christmas. Well somewhere between my trip to NYC, and Savannah, the rubber outer part of one of the wheels split open making it unable to roll. My mom took the suitcase to the Bass outlet store in Hershey, no receipt, nothing and walked out with a brand new suitcase. That, my friends, is customer service!

Ok, now onto Day 2. I have a feeling this post is going to have a lot of picture with it, but pictures are always good, right? First stop of the day, a tour of the River Street Sweets Candy Factory. Yeah CANDY! We ate lots of delicious samples of salt water taffy and pralines. Yum! You haven't really had taffy until you've had it directly off the taffy pull.

We had a little time to shop along River Street before lunch which led to my single greatest purchase of the trip...TAH DAH

A high heeled cake server!!! YEAH! What brilliant genius thought "you know what would makes shoes better...if we could serve cake with them." I don't know why, but I also really like that it has a detachable magnetic heel. I wish it came with other heels, so that you could change them depending on what type of mood you were in...but alas, I'm stuck with the zebra print one. Because every type of cake goes with zebra print. (I also blame this object for the reason I had a note after getting home from the trip in my suitcase saying that they found it necessary to open and inspect it.)

After lunch, we strolled down to the Ships of the Sea Museum. I have to admit that when I saw this on the schedule I thought "yawn" and had flashbacks to my AP English trip to the National Cathedral in high school. But I was happily wrong. We took part in a program called "Rogues and Rouge: Women Pirates." Don't even get me started on the name. We learned all about women that were pirates, and I decided that I want to be a pirate when I grow up. But there are several different types of pirates, I'm going to be like Rachel Wall. Unlike most girl pirates that dressed up like boys, Rachel was the damsel in distress pirate. She would stand on the deck and flag other ships down for help and then when the crew boarded, her crew would jump out and take all their booty and stuff. I would definitely be like her. Because I could be pretty and bad ass at the same time (like Angelina Jolie). We also got to make cool pirate jewelry. (A cake serving shoe and pirate jewelry all in one day!! Are you serious!)

We had dinner at the Pirate House restaurant. Where there was some he/she pirate (still unsure on that one) roaming around being all creepy while we were eating. Their website says "world famous"...really not that impressed. Then we went on a carriage tour of the city and learned all the useless knowledge of Savannah (it was originally a colony for debtors) and saw all the useless sites (the steeple that the feather in Forrest Gump floats around).

Savannah Day 1: The Travel Buddies

Since we had a group of teenagers traveling with us it was necessary to have some sort of chaperoning system in place in order to ensure that everyone made it through the airport, etc. (And also what group trip would be complete without color coordinated T-shirts!) I was assigned two "travel buddies", Hannah and Molly. They are sisters and though people seem to get them confused ALL the TIME, I don't really see it. I have to say that we got along fabulously, since it was pretty much decided that I have the mentality of a twelve year old. (You'll probably see why later on). I think other people on the trip were jealous of me and my travel buddies. On the drive down to BWI, we played "Apprentice" Mad Libs...which was interesting. (I got fired for being a bad suitcase). We were not very inventive when it came to nouns and tended to use things like road, truck, sign, tree, telephone poll, etc.

It was interesting traveling with some girls that had little or no travel experience because I got questions like "when we get to atlanta do we have to move our luggage to the plane going to Savannah?" Cute. They were also absolutely in awe when I went out of our hotel room and returned with a bucket of ice.

We checked into the hotel (they had free cookies in the lobby!! Always a bonus for me) and went up to our room. In our room, waiting for us was this:

Along with a pack of cookies, a bottle of water and a note which read.

In the package was a bottle of Paula Deen's barbecue sauce. Now I don't know who Mr. Dipolo is or why his cookies and barbecue sauce were in our room, but we didn't really care and decided if they were still there tomorrow evening then they were rightfully ours...they were.

After settling in, we had a pizza and pool party. Because who doesn't love to eat a lot of pizza, soda and cookies and then go for a swim. Don't worry all you Girl Scout familiar people, we had the proper quota of lifeguards and water watchers.

So Much to Blog, So Little Time

I have so much to blog about, but my mom's in town, so its necessary to spend the obligatory bonding time with her. I have so many pictures from Savannah, so stay tuned for: Mr. Dipolo's barbeque sauce, the perfect way to kill someone, and being stranded in a tornado....that's my teaser.

In a short point, from Father's Day that I didn't blog about before i left. I went to visit my grandfather at his "assisted living community" (we're all on the same page about what that really is correct?). Anyway, as we were waiting for the elevator to take us to the dining room, I started reading the schedule of activities for the week: Happy Hour at 3pm, Pinochle, Crafting Time, and Fitness with Wii...wait? What? Man, I would pay to see those old people playing Wii for their fitness time. My mom doesn't even understand Wii.

My Runway Debut

It was obvious that watching all of those America's Next Top Model episodes paid off because I totally rocked it and am expecting calls from talent scouts any minute. Though I have to admit the stage like runway threw me off a little at first as I was expecting more of the catwalk type set up, but I adjusted (as all good models must).

They had a local cosmetology school doing makeup and hair. My situation was a little difficult because my first outfit was a very country club-esque silk skirt and white button down and my second outfit were "I Love Girl Scout Cookie" pajamas. The make up was first, and when I told the girl I was doing pajamas she decided on a very "natural" look. Perfect. Everything was going swimmingly until she pulled out the lavender lipstick. She applied it and then turned to her colleague and asked "how does she look." From the look on the other girl's face, it was not pretty, but she very politely said "I think it draws too much attention to her lips" and my make up artist chose a more neutral tan color.

Then it was onto hair. Again I explained the outfits that I was wearing, but then also added "and my hair doesn't hold a curl unless its cemented in." The girl nodded and suggested pigtails. Um...no. Pigtails with the pajamas maybe but not with the skirt and shirt combo (on a side note, some girls in my office and I had decided to do "pigtail Friday" but then Friday came and we kinda forgot.) So instead she did a high ponytail and a massive wall of bangs (higher on one side than the other). I looked like a cross between Elaine Benes and an 80's music video. Because apparently pajamas must just scream, please puff up all my bangs! I know that's what I always look like when I go to bed. I spent about 15 minutes before the show trying to smash them down in the bathroom. I know there's photos floating around there and am just dreading the thought of them making an appearance.

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane

Well, kids, Monday I leave for Savannah, GA on my Girl Scout pilgrimage to Juliette Low's birthplace. Actually any excuse to get out of town, I say HELL YEAH! Since I'm going with a group of teenage girls and would rather my laptop not turn into My Space/Facebook central, I will be not be posting next week. Though I'm going to be in my first Girl Scout fashion show at the mall tomorrow and will be attending the Colonial Craft Fair on Sunday so if anything interesting happens and I have time, I may post prior to my departure on Monday.

In an episode of poor planning on my part, summer outreach for work and all my mom's quarterly visit to PA both occur the day I get back. I must be slightly stressed about that because I've been having my tooth falling out stressed out dream. Though I don't feel stressed out. I also scratched myself on my forehead right between my eyebrows.

Because it uncannily resembles the letter "J" and since I watched a TV movie last week on Sybil, I've been telling people that one of my alternate personalities decided to label me. Anyway, I'll take lots of pictures and post them upon my return.

The Harrisburg Mall

I've thought about blogging about the Harrisburg Mall several times, but the blog needed to include pictures, and I was admittedly a little fearful of getting kicked out of the mall for taking pictures. That happened to a friend of mine when I was in middle school. She was taking pictures for a school project and security escorted her out of the building. Today I saw something though that I just HAD to blog about.

I rarely go to the Harrisburg Mall. There are several malls in the area, and the Harrisburg Mall attracts two main types of people. 1) Harrisburg city people. (Yes, i live in Harrisburg, but not actually in the city.) In fact there was a shooting outside the mall about a couple months ago. 2) Rednecks. There is a big Bass Pro outdoor shop as one of the anchor stores. It looks like a lodge, and you can buy everything there that your little outdoorsy heart desires: deer stands, boats, cross bows, bait, and other things that I don't even know what they are. In fact, they have shopping carts that look like NASCARs that kids can ride in.

If that's not redneck, I don't know what is. Since I fall into neither of these categories, I choose another mall to go to. BUT Bath and Body Works is having their semi-annual sale, and since Bath and Body Works is my crack, I go to as many Bath and Body Works as I can find. Hence why I was at the Harrisburg Mall this morning. In the end of the mall where the Bass Pro shop is, they have a bunch of stuffed wildlife. Such as this bear.
No that is not in a Natural History Museum. That is in my mall. At one point, they have a little pond, that has fish in it. Not goldfish like a normal mall pond, but trout or carp or some other game fish that I can't identify. There are some rocks stacked up in the middle with a waterfall running down them, and a giant stuff bear on its hind legs at the top of the waterfall. (You're jealous your mall doesn't have this as well. I know.) Today, I saw a woman manage to cross the pond, scale up the rocks and was having her picture taken next to the bear. In the words of Danielle "people are stupid."

The Coolest Thing EVER

I'm a complete sucker when it comes to kids with fundraisers. Probably because I had to sell for EVERYTHING that I was involved with when I was little (school, Girl Scouts, soccer, band, dance, etc.) and know how much it sucks. The most original fundraiser I ever saw was when I lived with my parents in Indiana, and we had two teenage kids ring our doorbell that were trying to raise money for a church trip. The one kid says "if you give us five dollars for our trip, I will break an egg over my friends head." I've never seen my mom rush to get five dollars so quickly, and it was totally worth it too! But yesterday I bought...

SMENCILS. Yes, that's right I said smencils. There are multiple cool things about smencils. 1) They come in little vials that look like they should hold an antidote or a super virus in it. 2) There are lots of scents: I got tropical blast, root beer and chocolate. 3) The organization makes really good profit on them. 4) They are REALLY scented. You can smell them as soon as you open the little vial. The root beer is almost too root beery. Also, the scent is supposed to last up to 2 years! I'll let you know in two years if its still scented. 5) It's made out of 100% recycled newspapers which I am all about! I'm really excited to use them. I think I want to use them at my training tomorrow and see how many people start sniffing around going "do you smell chocolate?"

Things that Annoy Me

My left turn signal is broken. AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! On my way home from the gym today, I noticed that when I put my left turn signal on the light on my dash didn't blink, and it also wasn't making the turn signal noise. So I got home, turned my turn signal on, and jumped out of the car to see if anything was going on. Nope. Nothing. It's officially broken.

I still hit it just out of reflex everytime I go to make a left turn, and when nothing happens it really pisses me off. I started to think about making a purposeful effort not to signal a left turn just so it wouldn't make me mad, but thought this might be problematic then when it gets fixed. The other thing that annoys me about this is that I'm now "that guy" that doesn't signal when turning. I want to shout out my window "I'm really sorry. My turn signal is broken. Really!" Maybe I'll start using the hand signals out of my window that they teach at bike safety carnivals. Or maybe I'll just try to get it fixed tomorrow.

Damn that Ashlee Simpson!

For those of you that don't know me personally, I'm going to have to fill you in on a little secret of mine. I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. I love the movie. I love the book (yes, I read the book). I love everything about it. I have a rather large collection of Alice in Wonderland themed items (only a few pieces of which are pictured.) The majority of my collection is still at my parents house in Indiana (due to lack of space.) At one point, I would say I was nearly obsessive. Any stupid little thing that had Alice In Wonderland on it, I had to have. But that has since been quelled due to the fact that I live in a tiny little apartment and also have cash flow issues.

Upon reading yesterday about Ashlee Simpson's Wonderland themed wedding to Pete Wentz, it makes me want to get my entire collection into a pile and light it on fire. (I'm really not an Ashlee Simpson fan, if you didn't catch that...ps I don't care what she says. she's completely pregnant.) I mean an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday, ok, I can see that, but a wedding, even I would not go that far!

The Blood Bank Experience

I used to give blood all the time. Then I had three bad giving blood experiences in a row, and so I stopped and I dropped off the blood bank radar. Well, then back a couple months ago one of the areas I work with had a blood drive, so in a show of support, I signed up. Now I'm back on the map!

Yesterday, I had an answering machine message. "This is Donna from the Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank. We are in extreme need of your blood type. There is an organ transplant patient at Hershey Medical Center that has depleted our supply of B positive blood and we are looking for people that would be able to donate before the holiday weekend. If you are able, please give me a call so that we can schedule a time."

My first cynical thought was "I bet there really isn't an organ transplant patient with B positive blood, and this is all a clever scam to get my blood." Then my second thought was "if there is an organ transplant patient with B positive blood, do they know that they are being blamed for the shortage of that blood type in Central Pennsylvania?" Either way, they got me, so today I called and asked if I could come over right away. They said sure, so I hopped in my car and went over to the donor center.

I passed all the little tests they put you through. It's kind of like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he has to go through all the tests in the cave or whatever to get the Holy Grail. I'm always worried that I'm going to check off the wrong box and the testing lady will turn to me and say "you chose poorly." But I didn't. Then they put my blood in the little vat of blue water to see if it had enough iron, and it took it's good old time sinking to the bottom (seriously like five minutes). Secretly in my head I was yelling at it. "Sink damn you. Sink"

Finally I got through. They shove the needle in my arm and start pumping away. Then this guy comes in, and the needle sticker lady cannot get a vein. She's poking around and keeps asking him if "he's ok." He is, so she keeps digging in his arm. I'm trying not to look because the last time that happened to someone near me, I almost passed out and they had to flip me backwards, so my feet were up in the air. Then the poker calls her supervisor (at which point my thing beeps to say that it has all the blood it needs...thank goodness!). The supervisor is now digging around in his arm. They're trying everything. Give him a stress ball. Take away the stress ball. Undo the elastic strap and put it on tighter. I walked out, and they still hadn't gotten it in. I wanted to suggest that they try his other arm, but what do I know. So I go out to the "cantina"...Cantina apparently means table set up by the receptionist's desk with cookies and juice on it...and start drinking some apple juice and eating peanut butter crackers. All of the sudden the needle prodder lady, sprints out to the "cantina" grabs a Pepsi and a straw and runs back into the little room. That's not a good sign! I was fine though. I didn't follow the directions to leave the bandage on for an hour and not do strenuous exercise for 24 hours because I had yoga in 40 minutes. It was fine though, and I'll probably donate blood again in 8 weeks or whatever the time limit is.

The Green Tea Hershey Bar

This past week my friend Kerri stayed with me for a few days on her way from Indiana to Connecticut. Of course, we took time to go enjoy Chocolate World and enjoy the free ride and free chocolate and also scope out what bizarre new candy concoctions Hershey has devised.

While they were pushing their Bliss line pretty hard, I had already tasted them and they were pretty normal and yummy. The Batman themed dark chocolate Reese's cup looked interesting, but still a little too normal. We decided to be adventurous, so we decided to try this:

A green tea Hershey bar. Note that is not English on the wrapper. The most disturbing part of this candy bar is when you bite in and see this.

Candy bars should not look like that on the inside. The candy bar is a little distorted because it melted slightly on the car ride home. The whole thing wasn't that bad. The green tea flavor was a little overwhelming for the chocolate and the texture was interesting. I probably will not buy another one, and I doubt if we'll see this hit the American supermarkets.

A 3-Day Update

I thought it was time for an update on my training, fundraising, etc for the 3-day in October. Sunday was a big step in my 3-day efforts. I decided to do my third 10 mile walk. I had to switch my training location because my cousin told me that women had been sexually assaulted at my previous location. That might only be an urban legend but even if it is, I wouldn't be able to walk without constantly assessing the people and woods around me. So I mapped out a 1.5 mile loop in my neighborhood. This is good and bad. 1) It's closer to my apartment which is both good and bad. Should it start to rain, I'm only at most .75 miles from my house. But its also bad because I can choose to give up at any point where on my other trail it was out and back, so I had no choice but to finish it in order to get back to my car. 2) I'm now walking on cement vs gravel. Again good and bad. I no longer get gravel in my shoe, but it's actually a lot tougher on my feet than I expected. 3) there are more people around. Good and bad. Good because should I suddenly break a leg or something there is help nearby. Bad because I'm walking loops and get weird looks at about my third loop. I had a lot harder time with this walk than my other ones. My shoes gave me blisters for the first time (I thought about taking pictures of them for the blog, but decided not to gross you out), so I guess I have no choice but to spend some money on some good walking shoes. My body also kinda gave out afterwards. The next day I had a fever, body aches, chills, cold sweat and intense malaise.

The other thing that happened Sunday was that my cousin in law Heidi held a fundraiser for my walk at Sam's Club. She called me Friday to tell me she was doing something for Sunday and asked who checks should be made out to. I expected something small like a bake sale, selling hotdogs or maybe cakes (since that is her area of knowledge.) Boy, was I wrong. I stopped by Sunday to see what was going on. She had cupcakes (like the one pictured...thanks to my cousin Aubrey, the cupcake model with the green fingernails), ribbons, paint a flower pot, candles, bears with vases and roses, and Mother's Day cards. I haven't heard how much she made, but it seemed to go well.

Currently I'm at 18% of my goal. That doesn't include whatever Heidi collected on Sunday, but even with that I still have a long way to go! Thanks to everyone who has contributed. If you haven't contributed yet, there's still plenty of time. Even a small amount helps towards the goal ($15 would be 25 cents per mile, $30 would be 50 cents per mile). To sponsor my walk, you can either click on the horribly large picture to the right, or click here.

Massive Head Wound Harry

My dad is not only training to do the 3-day with me, but he is also training to do a marathon. Yesterday morning he woke up, ran 11 miles (which I have to say I was pretty impressed with) and then fainted in the shower. Probably due to lack of proper nutrition since he just thought he would eat breakfast after he changed. You can't run 11 miles with nothing in you, dummy! Anyway, he had to go to the ER and get 11 stitches (aka 1 stitch per mile) in the middle of his forehead.

My mom was pissed because it was "a beautiful day and there was a Notre Dame baseball game." I'm a little surprised that she didn't just dump my dad off at the hospital and tell him to call when he was done. My dad sent me an e-mail yesterday and instead of a smiley face at the end he put this \:-) which is apparently supposed to be him with a scar in the middle of his forehead (dork!) He's really concerned because he has a big board meeting this week and apparently he looks more than slightly ridiculous. I called my mom today for Mother's Day (did you remember to call your mom?), and she kept referring to him as Massive Head Wound Harry which I think is hilarious.

Is Your Ticket Application In?

It's that time of year again. The time when Notre Dame alumni and donors scramble around to friends and family and try to make heads or tails of what everyone wants. Luckily this year, I am only looking for one ticket to the Syracuse game in November (yes, I'm serious), which I'm pretty sure will not be an issue.

My mom has apparently instituted a new rule this year for some reason. She is not giving tickets to anyone that will not promise to wear Notre Dame gear to the game. (AKA our family friend's son that went to Pitt or my dad's coworker that is a rabid Michigan fan). Keep in mind that we have given them tickets before, so I'm not really sure what the sudden change is. When my dad told her she was crazy, she apparently yelled at him "Remember the Nebraska Game!" Keep in mind that my parents didn't even live in South Bend during the 2000 Notre Dame/Nebraska game, so they only witnessed that embarrassing display of fanship on TV.

Little known fact: If you watch the 2000 Notre Dame/Nebraska game, you can see me running behind Bob Davie during the pregame with a football in my arms. I was a student manager that year, and that just happened to be one of my onfield games. I got to work the nets behind the goal posts. I think my parent still have that game on tape because of that. I wonder if my mom pulled it out on a whim, and that's why she's all fired up again all of the sudden.

Disturbing Crafts

In a few weeks, I have to do a community table at an Environmental Day event. I was not in the mood to do actual work today, so decided to try and figure out what recycled/earth friendly craft activity I would be taking with me. I searched the web and one site that I came up with was this.

Please scroll down to the post for May 4th. Not that the toilet paper wedding dress is not disturbing in its own way. It was not, however, at the top of the page when I was searching earlier today. The baby doll coat rack was! I'm not really sure what type of a person would be driven to make such a thing (unless you're an ax murderer or have a prosthetics fetish). I also do not even want to think about what type of decor your house would need in order to warrant a "that would be perfect in my foyer!" type exclamation. I love that its described as a "cute and creepy coat rack made of doll appendages." I'm just thankful that they left off the head.

I Think She Forgot, What Do You Think?

This morning we had a meeting at 9am in the York office. My boss was supposed to pickup myself and Carmen at the Harrisburg office at 8, so that we could car pool down. At 8:20, she still wasn't there, so I decided to call her thinking she may have forgotten us and was already on her way to York.

Me: "Hey, it's Jsto."
Her: "Hi, what's up?"
Me: "Um, you were supposed to pick us up at 8 to go to the meeting in York."
Her: "Oh, I'm running a little late. I haven't left my house yet and when I get there, we have to unpack the back of my car, so that you can sit in the backseat."

Luckily, a person from another department was about ready to leave for York, so Carmen and I just went with her instead. It was good because Carmen and I always argue on who has to sit upfront and talk business. It usually comes down to who arrives last. I was last this morning.

Sidenote: When we get to the meeting, at the beginning we had to "check in" by saying the title of a movie, a line from a movie or a character from a movie that best describes how we're feeling at that moment. We go around the table and it gets to my boss: "I'm Maria from the Sound of Music because I like to sing and I want to change the world." Really? You're going to go with Maria? Really? And you mean this completely seriously? I apparently had a reflex snicker because I didn't even know I had done it but the girl beside me said I did. This is what I put up with every day.

They Like Me. They Really Like Me.

Look at the beautiful roses that my volunteers gave me last night. Aren't they so pretty! Unfortunatly, I discovered that I do not have a wide mouth vase and so they are in a glass water pitcher. I feel that secretly the flowers are scoffing at me. "Can you believe this? She doesn't even have a proper vase to put us in! Really! The nerve of some people!"

Apparently at one point, there had been a discussion about favorite colors with my volunteers (though I don't remember this at all or why there would be circumstances in which to discuss favorite colors with a group of adults). I had said that mine was purple and they remembered. Though with all the problems that this group has caused, this bouquet should be ten times the size it is (or at least presented along with a tiara like Miss America). Or a bunch of purple roses could've been made into a shawl like the ones they make for horses at the Kentucky Derby. I guess these will have to do.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

Today is Earth Day, and I know there are lots of ways that are recommended to help save the Earth. I know there are lots of crazy ways out there (aka don't shower except once a week in order to save water), but there are a lot of simple ways as well. Here are 25 things that I do and that I think are really simple.

1) Recycle: DUH! I know not everywhere has recycling or only recycle certain things, so just recycle whatever you can. If your office recycles paper, recycle paper. If you have curb pickup for glass and plastic, put out your glass and plastic. If your grocery store recycles plastic bags, take your plastic bags there. If you live in Indiana like my parents and can basically recycle everything, then recycle everything.

2) Use a lunchbox instead of paper bags. I'm not telling you to pull out the transformers lunch box that you had in 2nd grade. There are really cute lunch bags available now.

3) Don't want it? Give it away. There are lots of charities out there that would love that slightly pilly sweater or the book you really hated or that gag gift your best friend gave you. Before you throw it out, see if someone else wants it. Or Freecycle it.

4) Turn of the water when your brushing your teeth. Really...why does this have to be so difficult people? Wet your brush. Turn off the water while your brushing and then turn back on to rinse.

5) Warm it up in the microwave instead of the oven. A microwave oven uses one-third of the energy of a conventional oven. Plus your baked potato can be done in 5 minutes versus 5 hours!

6) Take your own bag when you go shopping. Ok, so I forget to do this sometimes. But if I know I'm going somewhere, I take a cute bag with me or a big purse so the small things I can just throw in my bag rather than wasting another one. Plus I keep my reusable grocery bag in my car at all times, so in case I'm stopping for milk on the way home from work, I already have it.

7) Unplug your chargers. I know its ridiculous to unplug or turn off your power strip for everything (it screws up the automatic clock on lots of appliances), but just unplug your chargers. When you pull off your cell phone or Ipod, pull the charger out of the wall too!

8) Edit before you hit print. Make sure that you've proofed what your printing before you just go ahead and print, make more changes, print again, see another error, print again.

9) Snip your six pack holders. Think of the poor birdies and fishies that get caught in these. Take the five seconds and snip the holes in your six pack rings open.

10) Buy in bulk. I live in an apartment and don't have a lot of space for bulk products, but things like laundry detergent that I use all the time, I always try to buy bigger. Not only does it save packaging, but its usually cheaper.

11) Get rid of unwanted catalogs. I know I already posted on this, but I think its a really good idea. I was always getting catalogs that I didn't really want, but didn't know how to get rid of. Well, go here and they'll take care of it for you.

12) Turn lights off when you leave the room. If all the lights in your house are on, the TV's on, a radio's on and you're in the shower...there's some problems there.

13) Don't use electrical appliances for things you can easily do by hand. AKA the can opener. Build those arm muscles.

14) Put on a sweater instead of turning the heat up. I keep my apartment fairly cold during the winter. I'm hardly ever here so what's the point. But when I am here and I get chilly, I go for a sweater or fuzzy blanket instead of the thermostat.

15) Use a filter to filter tap water rather than buying bottled.

16) Run your dishwasher only with a full load. I'm not telling you to abandon all of your appliances, but don't run it with only a fork in there.

17) Give live plants instead of cut flowers. Every girl loves flowers. Mother's day is right around the corner. Give a plant that can be planted outside or kept in their house rather than cut flowers that will die in a week.

18) Use (and reuse) gift bags instead of wrapping paper.

19) Buy local. Go to the local farmer's market or orchard. Not only will there be less preservatives in your food, but it will also cut down on the costs and pollution associated with transporting food to your grocery store.

20) Go to the library. Ok, most of you are aware that I don't read. But whenever I want to try a new recipe or new craft or learn a new skill, I hit the library rather than the bookstore.

21) Skip the elevator take the stairs. This is one that you always hear associated with exercise and dieting, but have you ever thought about how much electricity it takes to run an elevator. I don't really know, but I'm guessing its a lot.

22) Group your errands together. Post office near the grocery store. You might not be out of stamps yet, but shouldn't you pick some up while you're so close?

23) Use a digital camera and delete before you print. Oops! Got your finger in the way? Don't print that picture.

24) Just because its free doesn't mean you need it. This is one thing I've really been working on. Next time you're at that convention and see the keyring with the thermometer on it, think about if you'll actually use it or if it will end up in the trash in a couple months (or weeks...or days).

25) Instead of driving to the gym on a beautiful day. Go for a walk. Not only will being outside be good for you. It will also save gas and electricity.