One might think that I am not working hard today. One might be wrong. I have gotten a lot done, I just need to do more since I am leaving for Boston Sunday morning and won't be back in the office until Wednesday. But I'm all antsy now. And I need to find my scarves, as I think I might need one in Boston. Here is where I am staying. I went to Boston once about ten years ago on a mission trip. It was in the summer and it was grossly hot. And I can't stop singing The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything right now. I think I am excited. I also think I'm going to be exhausted when I return. And my mom was trying to guilt trip me about not spending Thanksgiving with she and my dad and her mom. I was like, whatever, I told you this was my pan. It's not my fault that you didn't actually listen to me until this week. And I called my grandma (about the cheesecake) and she said I was lucky to be spending Thanksgiving with our beautiful girls. I was like, right, and Dave and Rachel aren't too bad, either. She didn't really seem to be offended; it's not like her house isn't going to be full of people. So I don't know why my mom is being all weird. And she won't go to Louisville with my dad Saturday. He was standing right next to me and she goes, "I don't know why David wants to go there." I was like, hello, David is right here. He was just like, I want to go so I can see my dad. It was weird. I would be mad if I were him. But I think we established I'm not him a long time ago. Also, established: coffee makes me jittery and random.

So apparently the president isn't allowed to have e-mail. I feel like this is probably one of those obvious things that I've just never given any thought to, but man, that sucks. No work e-mail, no personal e-mail, so therefore, no smartphones. Sucks for them. "The nature of the president's job is that others can use e-mail for him." Fine. What about texting? No? Harsh.

I made two pumpkin cheesecakes last night. Sans recipe. I just pretended that I knew what I was doing. They look good and smelled right, but they might still be funky. Who knows? I made them at my parents' house, so I wouldn't have to buy nutmeg and ginger and cinnamon, and also I have no mixer. Anyway, that's how I learned they are trying to get rid of Jack! Jack is awesome. I am fully against it. But I can't take him because he doesn't like other cats, only dogs. And he's way too inside/outside for my area of town. The street is too busy. Some lady who came to do the closets said she would take him, but she does already have two cats and a dog. I really don't think Jack would want to live with other cats. And really, everyone who comes to their house to do work loves Jack because he's friendly and super cool and he blends in with all the carpet quite awesomely. Although, I think if Jack came to my house, he would put the smack down on Kazoo, who is being remarkably evil lately. He ate most of a (closed) container of candy corn Sunday and then threw it up, and then yesterday he ate a loaf of bread that was left on the table. Stupid dog.

I was just shredding something and it got stuck and when I bent over to futz with it, some of my hair fell into the little thing. It didn't go so far into it as to get caught, but still. Scared me for a second. That must be why my old shredder had picture of a ponytail with a line through it on the top. This one just has a hand with a line through it, a tie with a line through it, and some sort of liquid drops with a line. Apparently they don't care about my hair. I maybe shouldn't have had cake for breakfast. I think it's made me weirder than usual...

Apropos of nothing...

I was thinking about how I call Dave and Rachel dude pretty often. I don't call very many other people dude, mostly because people make fun of me because...it's very dated? I think with them, it's more like a term of endearment than anything else. Like I call Dave dude, where I might call someone else dear or honey. Also, I realized this last week, although I'm sure it doesn't matter: in just under one month, Rachel will have been around for more than half of my life. She's long past being around more than half of Mark's, but she and Dave have a few more years until they hit half of each other's lives. Yay for their strength, restraint, patience, and tenacity.

From Meg's blog by way of Rachel's blog..

Three names you go by:
1. Andrea
2. Miss Benz
3. Ohndrea (mispronunciation)

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Gray pants
2. Green tee shirt
3. Socks

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To figure out what I can eat for dinner
2. To find something on TV today that doesn't make me feel dumber (seriously, the number of things I have watched today that somehow involve krumping is embarrassing)

Three people who will probably fill this out:
1. Maybe Christina
2. Yeah, that's probably it.
3.

Two things you did last night:
1. Watched a bunch of The Learning Channel
2. Wondered if the girls in the Duggar family are allowed to shave their legs (they always wear skirts! What do you think?)

Two things you ate today:
1. Granola bar
2. Chicken Caesar salad

Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. Dave
2. Shannon

Two things you are going to do tomorrow:
1. Go to work
2. Go to the store

Two longest rides you have taken:
1. From Bowling Green, KY to Missouri
2. From Bowling Green, KY to Orlando, FL.

Two favorite beverages:
1. Raspberry lemonade
2. Dr. Pepper

In which my train of thought gets handily derailed quite quickly...

So, I took Shannon to UrgentCare today and the lady who came in behind us was carrying a copy of Twilight. I was like, hey, I just read that. She said her thirteen year old daughter told her she had to read it. I wanted to say, well, it's definitely a book for teenage girls, ripe with obvious metaphors about sex/abstinence and much discussion of Bella's thanatophilia, which is something that those teens who realize they are not invincible often have (although to be honest, I never really agreed with the whole, teenagers as a breed think they are invincible thing, so do with that what you will...). I stuck with just it's certainly for teenagers. From everything I've read about the movie, it's the sort of absurdly self-serious tripe that lends itself to a good time at the movies if you enjoy laughing at melodramatic outbursts coupled with shaky dialogue. I completely realize that I keep talking about the same two things this week. I'm not sure what that's about, but beyond saying, "Hah! I called it first!" on the first three sentences of this Jezebel post, I am so finished torturing Rachel about one of them. Also, hearkening back to where I started, Shannon is still having severe back pain that multiple doctors remain unable to explain, and thusly, are unable to treat the cause of. It's going on about 6 weeks on and off, but very much on this weekend and I know she is getting very frustrated and disheartened. So please pray for her.

Apparently my grandfather inadvertently made the acquaintance of a grief counselor (inadvertent on his part, and he never used the words grief counselor) while at the funeral home this week. She went to high school with my dad and Granddaddy wound up talking to her for quite a while and found it very helpful. So helpful, in fact, that he made an appointment to meet with her again. I think that's really great and I'm glad he's talking it through with someone.

At least they didn't go with Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Oh, dear. It would seem that Ashleeeeeee Simpson and Pete Wentz named their new son Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Now that's just mean. Not to bring up that awful Jungle Book for the second time this week or anything, but maybe she had a crush on Mowgli like Zoe did. Or maybe she's just weird...

Anyone have an extra $600-$1000 laying around and want to go to Boston with me the Saturday/Sunday after Thanksgiving? Hotel room's on me! Or rather on my work. But still. Why don't I know any rich people?

Ohhh, I can't wait.

So, I think I've mentioned how I have a bunch of One Tree Hill on my DVR for a rainy day. Thanks to this post on Go Fug Yourself, I think I may have to play catch-up on that this weekend (I know they talk about Gossip Girl first, but they get to the awful/awesomeness that is One Tree Hill). I must know why Dawson appears to be laying on a table shirtless in a recording studio or radio station with someone turning his head for him. And the back in time episode does appear to be extremely awful even for that show. I accidentally saw tiny bits of last night between picking things to watch from the DVR. I didn't realize it was a back in time episode though; I thought maybe it was like, a themed night at that club or whatever that is so very Peach Pit After Dark of them. You know what I'm talking about, Christina. :)

Absurdity

Last night when I got home from work, I ranted at Shannon about something for a few minutes and she was like, dude, that's bad. She thought we should toilet paper the offending party's house. I'm sure we could be far more creative than that, right Benzes? Anyway, then she was like, ok, that sucks, but I just got to the part in Twilight where things finally happen. So she finished the book before she had to go to class. And we agreed that pretty much nothing happens for the first 400 pages or so. It's not even like, a big reveal when she figures out he's a vampire, because you already know that going into the book (even if you didn't read anything about it anywhere else, it's on the back cover of the book). But again, she said she would totally read the other three. What is wrong with us?!

Hah! I am so timely.

According to the comments on this post on Jezebel today, I am not alone in thinking Twilight was kind of absurd, but also wanting to read the other books. We just can't help it...
For the record, when Ashley gave me the book, I looked rather askance at the ridiculous quotes about it being one of the year's best books and a timeless love story, as well as some other crap, and she totally was like, no it's not one of the best books of any year, nor is it an awesome love story. So I'm not like, bashing on someone's favorite book or anything. Also, I freely admit that I want to read more. So I'm just ridiculous myself.

Folkloric masterpiece? I think not.

So I finished the book Ashley lent me last night. I handed it off to Shannon, because that's how we do and told her it was the book that we've been seeing all the ads for the movie based on it lately, with Cedric Diggory and whatnot. She asked me if it was bad or spectacular. Oh, it's both, my friend. One might say it is spectacularly bad. Although I have to say, I want to read the others now. I just read a review of it by a Paperbackswap member who claims that Bella has the verbal skills of a 35 year-old MENSA member. I think maybe she read a different book. Or she has the verbal skills of a 3 year-old. The dialogue was definitely not something to write home about. Of course, that review was preceded by a review wherein the writer claimed she would be defiantly dragging her husband to see the movie. Oh, people who cannot type the word definitely. You definitely crack me up.

Also, the cover of the book reminds me of nothing so much as Snow White. What does an apple have to do with anything? Is it a reference to temptation? Man's thirst for things he should not want and should not know? Or is it just there because the people are all pale and it's red like the blood the vampires drink? Maybe I'm reading too much into this. And if any of you are former viewers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,(I used to watch it while I was getting ready in the mornings because it came on at 6) their vampire canon deviates rather a lot from Joss Whedon's vampire canon. Interesting. Pretty much the only thing that is the same is the paleness and the blooddrinking. All the other rules are different (like what can kill them, special abilities, the whole sunlight thing, the invitation to enter a house, etc.).

I am such a nerd. I just looked up the movie on IMDB so I could put a link to Cedric, for clarity, and was all excited by things I saw in the cast list. Also, it's directed by Catherine Hardwicke. So of course, Nikki Reed is in it and Luke from Joan of Arcadia (remind me to lend that to you, Rachel-I really think you'll like it)and, on a less awesome note, Sharkboy from the worst movie ever made, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3D. Although, he was just a kid, so maybe that's not entirely his fault. But still, completely terrible. Worse than that live-action sequel to The Jungle Book that Zoe used to watch all the time.

I know Rachel and Ashley posted about the funeral and whatnot, but I have things to say too. It was a lovely funeral, although everytime I looked at my dad, it made me cry. And as Ashley said, our whole row lost it when Mark finished singing and then turned his head and sobbed. Shannon came and sat in the back and she said she cried when, after the funeral was over and everyone was leaving, she was trying to make her way to the front and saw us all clinging to each other. She said Dave and Rachel and I hugging took her over the edge and she didn't even know my grandma. I was mostly thankful that no one asked all of us to sing again, like at my grandfather's funeral, which Shannon said was completely heartbreaking. But we did it because my grandma asked us to. Just like this go-round, I was a pallbearer because they said my grandfather wanted the granddaughters to do it too. So that was new and different. Rachel and Ashley kept talking about how she wasn't even their grandma, so Rachel was like, I don't know why I'm crying so hard. But really, just because you didn't grow up with her, doesn't mean you don't have the right to be upset. What got me again yesterday was that while were at the house with all the family, my grandfather said that she mentioned she wanted to get me a mixer for Christmas. She and I made a cake together last weekend while we were there and I told her about how I tried to make meringue, but it didn't turn out so hot because I don't have a mixer so I had to whisk it by hand. I'm just so worried about my grandfather and what he's going to do now. Regardless of whether he stays at his house for a while or moves in with someone else, he's just going to be so lost...

OK, now that all the relevant persons have been notified, please pray for our grandma. She had a stroke (not her first) this morning and is in the hospital in Louisville. I don't have a lot of details, but please keep her and our grandfather in your prayers.

8 things

8 Favorite TV shows:
1: House
2: Pushing Daisies
3: 30 Rock
4: The Office
5: America's Next Top Model
6: Gossip Girl
7: How I Met Your Mother
8: What Not To Wear (or most any show on TLC)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1: Panera
2: Whitt's (I love the turkey baked potato!)
3: Kyoto
4: Royal Thai
5: Linzie's
6: Mancino's
7: The Cheesecake Factory
8: Edgar's Bakery

8 things that happened yesterday:
1: Got up late
2: Had a caramel latte from Sonic-it was good
3: Got two books in the mail!
4: Watched last week's Gossip Girl since apparently we forgot about it in all the election excitement last week
5: Took Shannon to school, read a book, picked Shannon up from school
6: Went to Subway
7: Got a really terrible sandwich at said Subway-the bread was so hard I couldn't make indentations with my fingers, and it had been toasted (not by request) to try to disguise the fact that the bread was so old, but it really didn't help
8: Went back to Subway with my sub-par sandwich and got a better one, plus a free cookie for my trouble. Way to make it right, Subway chick who seemed horrified by her co-worker's folly

8 things to look forward to:
1: 6 people at work are gone this week, so the four of us remaining will hopefully have a quiet week
2: Hopefully lower gas bills than last winter due to our awesome job of insulating the windows
3: Christmas
4: Thanksgiving
5: Figuring out what's happening at Thanksgiving and Christmas
6: Not having to pay someone to mow the lawn for a while
7: It's supposed to be raining here thru Friday. I love rain.
8: Christmas music!

8 things I love about fall:
1: Colder weather
2: Blankets!
3: Cuddling with the animals when it's cold and dreary
4: Christmas shopping
5: STUFFING!
6: Getting to wear my awesome pink coat again!
7: Making desserts for holidays-I'm better at baking than cooking
8: Tights! I love getting to wear tights with skirts and dresses, because then I don't feel like I'm blinding people with my paleness.

8 things on my wish list:
1: New lamps
2: New brown shoes
3: New books (always)
4: New sheets
5: New clothes
6: Snuggies-what? It's cold at our house, and I think then we would look like cloaked members of some sort of cult or secret society. Also, buy one, get one free! Or just the cold thing...
7: New phone
8: New music. I haven't bought in music in ages. I did copy some cds a dude lent me at the beginning of this year, but nothing since then. I should look into that. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. And if you are really awesome, you should send me some music that is good.

I'm not tagging anyone because everyone else did this like 2 weeks ago. I am slow. Christina, if you want to, that's cool, but I don't expect it.

It would seem everything is about to change. Time pushes us inexorably into the future. I guess I'm about to make a change that I'm still uncertain about, but since I don't have any better options or even any other ideas, here I go. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to do it. Or I'll be able to do it, but not very well. Wish me luck! I can only assume that since this opportunity dropped into my lap, and nothing else has, this must be what I'm supposed to do...

Glasnost?

I just learned something about The Sound of Music, which I love. I sing Edelweiss at least once a week. In fact, Sunday I was singing it to Kazoo (when he's being a punk, if I start singing he'll stop and come sit on me with his face all up in mine and stare lovingly at me-it's funny)and somehow it morphed into me singing America from West Side Story and then This Land Is Your Land, This Is My Country, Faith of Our Fathers, and finally Fifty Nifty United States which led into My Favorite Things, oddly enough. Shannon just laughed at me. Anyway, what I learned was that during the Cold War, BBC planned to air The Sound of Music in the event of a nuclear attack because it would 'reassure' the public. That's so awesome.

So, now that Lynn told me she thinks I'm occasionally funny, I feel the need to be entertaining more often. That will inevitably be a losing venture. Anyway, you know the other day when I said I was working on something funny? Yeah, I couldn't do what I wanted to do because the computer hates me, and rather than do it all subpar, I didn't do it. But what it was was that Shannon's five year old twin nephews were Obama and McCain for Halloween and their mom took some video of it. Shannon and I were there, and thusly she asked us to do something with the footage she shot. I wanted to put it either Ebony and Ivory or So Happy Together, as the audio is somewhat less that thrilling. She had coached Obama to say, "Share the wealth!" and McCain to say, "Friends, we need to end this war now!" But since they were five and were wearing masks, it was mostly garbled. Still funny, but not the most compelling thing you've ever seen. Also, the McCain mask was weirdly a darker color than the Obama mask. It looked like McCain had spent a little too much time in the tanning booth. Sadly, it just didn't work out, because I could see it in my head and it was awesome. And now it's no longer topical, so what's the point?

So, about church last night. That was...interesting. My dad, our tech minister and the tech/music assistant were all in Houston at a conference. The light guy didn't show, so I was doing lights and graphics, so I just played with the lights when it seemed appropriate. The sound guy had a head cold and told me right before the service started that he could barely hear, which explained the practice. Benny kept adding extra choruses at the end of songs. Seriously, he added at least one extra chorus to the end of 3 out of four songs. But that's fine. It was just that I was trying to help the sound guy mix it and the vocal team wasn't the strongest and one of the altos was making a valiant attempt to sing soprano. I'm not ragging on her because...well, if you've ever heard me try to hit high notes, it was like that. And the dude listened to me when I told him which vocalists to turn up and down, but he didn't seem to believe me about the piano or percussion. From the booth, on the whole, the music didn't sound so hot. Maybe it sounded better downstairs...Yeah, I'll go with that.

Dude. McCain's concession speech was probably the best speech he's ever given. It wasn't just well-written, he delivered it well. With feelings and everything. Had he been delivering things like that during his campaign, I think last night would've been much closer. Also, I have never seen so many awesome ties. There seems to be a profusion of purple ties lately. And the Silver Fox's silver tie was cool. I love that Obama hired an actual orchestra for his speech. Nice touch, dude. And is it wrong that I love James Carville, mostly because of that episode of 30 Rock he was on? And on a CNN note, what was up with that stupid hologram thing? Really? Oh, she's not here with you? I couldn't tell, since you and she spent like five minutes explaining how the holographic thing worked! Also, she didn't look at all strangely outlined or anything. Whatever, CNN.

I just voted! I feel like that time I was talking about my latent patriotism, only now it is bubbling up something fierce, rather than dissipating. Someone told me the other day that if you're a Republican when you're young, you have no heart, and if you're a Democrat when you're old, you have no brain. Apparently people say that. I don't know about that. I do know that I am ridiculously fired up right at this minute and I just got a little misty-eyed. I'm so excited that I feel like if I don't go to this other girl's office and grin foolishly at her without saying anything because the people in the offices around hers don't feel the same way we do, then I shall simply burst. Or type more overly dramatic, awful, nonsensical, poorly constructed crap on my blog. Whatever. Seriously. Also, I love you and if you don't vote today, I'm coming to your house to prattle on nonsensically at you in person about how you should be ashamed and if you don't respect yourself then you can't respect anyone else (apparently when I get all worked up I throw in random phrases from my mom's speeches-although the ashamed part is all me and I mean it!). Keep that in mind. I have clearly lost mine. Therefore, I'm not going to tell you whose side I voted for, so as not to unduly influence your opinion of supporters of ________. I schooled some people at my polling place about how Starbucks is not allowed to ask you for proof that you voted when you tell them you want your free cup of coffee. Eeeww. But it is illegal and now you know. I'm just excited. Like the kind of excited where you're not sure what's going to happen but you can't wait because you think it's going to be good, whatever it is. Yeah, like that.

More odds and ends

I hemmed some pants this weekend, so pants that were previously three and a half inches longer, now just barely skim the ground when I am standing barefoot. I like this length because they don't get all short when I sit down.

Pouring vegetable or olive oil on the dog's food(every week or two) makes his coarse fur silky and helps his skin.

Fall means pumpkin spice and cinnamon dolce lattes are back at Starbucks. Mmmm. Even if it is not cold this week...

I had my very first panic attack, I think. The other night my chest hurt and my heart was racing and I couldn't catch my breath and was all shaky. It was disturbing. I was thinking, am I having a heart attack? No, surely that would hurt more than this. And I know those things can indicate panic attacks, but I've never had one. Shannon was like, what were you doing? I was getting ready for bed. Nothing stressful or difficult about it. So that was new and different.

There is a commercial for the 21st District State Representative Democratic candidate Charlene Rabold that is completely bizarre. They say that the Republican candidate, Jim DeCesare, supports the legalization of marijuana and then this dude climbs out of the back of a smoke-filled van and says, "Thanks, Desiree!" Really, he mispronounces his name. I'm not sure if that part was accidental or if they are saying pot makes you suck at names. Regardless, it's a hilarious commercial. It's also ridiculous because when he asked her about it at their debate, she said she found that out via Google. And even that information she based it on was really a stretch. Which, really? Strong work, lady. Sadly, I cannot find that commercial anywhere for your viewing pleasure, so you'll just have to believe me.

Also, I'm working on something that will hopefully turn out to be funny. Don't hold your breath, though.