Learning to Drive

Up until I purchased my car just a hair over two years ago I could claim no competency for driving a manual.

(Have I talked about this? If so, too bad.)

My manual experiences, and yes there were plural, prior to that consisted of:
A) Driving a borrowed Subaru with my dad. All I remember is getting stuck at a stop sign on a hill and him yelling. My dad isn't a yeller.
B) Two separate occasions with my best friend, who would probably agree that they weren't the best. On the second, both she and her mom were in the car waiting for the other to tell me what to do.
C) An old farm truck that was more likely to drive of senility than of a mis-use of the clutch.

Fast forward to two years ago. I have been car shopping, somewhat seriously, and focusing mostly on Toyota Tacomas (the car of my heart).

One pick-up I test drove was even a manual (and ridiculously beyond my budget). The salesman put his life in my hands that time. I think I killed it about 7.5 times.

Then my dad spots a Honda Civic Hybrid being sold privately in the paper. A car that is almost the exact opposite of a pickup.

It is a manual.

I drive it once and decide to buy it.

Impulsive me? Actually, almost never. Unless it involves shoes.

Needless to say, I am now quite competent at driving a manual.

Although, Gwenyth (that's what I call my car) is a little high maintenance and prone to occasional pouting (a.k.a. stalling). Luckily, I can pop her in and out of first and she restarts herself.

It's like magic.

Not worth reading.

Let me just start off by saying that I really do care about this blog, at least on some level.

But I've been busy, yada, yada, and the blog has taken the hit. Work started back up, I'm mowing, and I've been housesitting/dogsitting.

That's not even counting my relentless social life. Haha. That was a funny one.

I mean, I have a lot of friends (or new TV shows to watch).

Plus, I've been contemplating things like grad school, money making schemes, and why I don't live somewhere tropical.

On top of all of that, I've had to wake up before 7am. It's rough, this life of mine.

And now, I spent way too many words on my extremely boring, unblogworthy life.

On that note, it's past my bedtime. And I'm only partially joking.

Magic?

Sometimes I'm not sure what people who create labels and instructions are thinking.

I'm not the first blogger to cover this topic and I doubt I will be the last, but I saw something the other day I just thought was ridiculous.

It was a bottle of hairspray, a nice brand, too.

The instructions said to hold the bottle a foot from your hair and move it like a magic wand.

Really? A magic wand?

Just who do they suppose is using the bottle? Hogwarts students?

It just seems ridiculous to me. I certainly have never been trained in the magic wand art.

Also, I would imagine that not everyone uses their magic wand exactly the same.

But since magic wands aren't a part of real life, I can't really be sure about that.

Joining the Health Care Debate

Sort of, but not really at all.

Mostly I just want to pass along this video. It cracked me up.

Happy Tuesday!

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Open to Suggestions

It could be the three glasses of wine, the 6 hour drive across the state, or the lack of sleep this weekend, but I feel like I could fall asleep in about 2.5 seconds.

Instead I am choosing to watch Bones.

What can I say, I'm a glutton for TV shows. I was trying to watch House, but FOX (at least on my TV) was having major issues and I didn't understand about every other word.

It was painful.

Speaking of TV, I watched the Emmys last night, which made me realize that I am glutton for suggestion--as a consumer and as a person.

After seeing a clip of Hugh Jackman's performance from last year's Oscars, I found myself on Youtube.com watching said performances.

Now I also want to try Yoplait Whips frozen, feel the need for a slouchy sweater (although I have previously mentioned that) and want to ask questions of the stadium full of Best Buy empl0yees.

Whoever realized how gullible humans are must have made a mint.

Now excuse me while I fall asleep, after I finish Bones and take a shower, that is.

Sometimes I want to rip my hair out.

I drove across the state yesterday to my alma mater to visit family and friends and not go watch our football team get their butt kicked.

It's too painful and I'd rather watch good football on TV. Sorry.

The drive is about as long as 3-4 eastern seaboard states and half of Europe. I can usually make it in under 6 hours because of my awesome ninja skills, knowledge of cop hang outs and countless experience, but it's construction season here in our great state.

And yes, that is a season. You can't convince me otherwise.

Instead the freeway was turned into a two-lane highway. On top of that, the genius construction people warned of the decreased lane-age about ten miles early causing everyone to freak out and slow down WAY too soon.

This meant that people either A) got over way too soon or B) flew past everyone until they had no choice but to get over.

It sucked until the semi-driver, who was probably more fed up than me, started driving down the middle of both lanes forcing people to actually get over so traffic could start moving again.

Sometimes, and by sometimes I mean very rarely, I wish I was driving a semi so I could rule the road including people with their fancy, overdone, jacked up pickups. I'm all for pick ups, but we know you are trying to compensate for something by being ten feet off the ground.

Plus who wants to make that much effort to get into their car. Really. Really. (Thanks SNL Weekend Update Thursday Edition.)

But I made it and have already seen people, eaten good food, and sweated because apparently it's still very much summer here and approximately 20 million degrees even though it's almost October.

The world is a weird place, I tell you.

Now excuse me while I accompany my cousin and her fiance to Moscow (and I don't mean Russia) for bridal registering. Such a fun Friday.

Actually, I'll probably abandon them and go in search of shoes.

Wishin' and Hopin'

Because I have contracted some sort of death cold, evil sickness blogging has become even less of a priority than previously.

Or at least having to put thought into my blog is no longer a priority.

Instead today I provide you with my current wishlist, of some things I want and some (well, mainly one) things I need. Without further ado...

I saw this skirt in Nordstrom's catalogue and fell in love. Pencil skirts are my favorite and I love the colors!








These are Seychelles shoes and will hopefully replace my most comfortable, loved, and now worn wedges. I got the originals over five years ago and have been looking for the perfect replacement.


This fits into the need category. I knew the time for new tires was quickly approaching and my last tune-up affirmed that. And these bad boys are what I will be purchasing.







I finally have my room organized and looking good. Except for a couple unsightly plastic drawers. A highboy dresser would take care of that problem, so I've been scouring Craigslist in search of a tall dresser to call my own and complete my room.




Maybe it's the evil cold or the rainy day, but nothing sounds more wonderful to me than a comfy slouchy sweater. I'm craving one of my own.





I fell in love with Bobbie Brown's creme shadows years and years ago, around the time I got my most comfortable wedges actually. Now she's come out with metallics and I'm excited to go see them in person. And possibly buy one or five.

Death warmed over.

Yesterday I finished the lifelong project of organizing my room/closet and now have much less crap that doesn't serve any purpose.

At the same time I contracted some sort of evil, soul sucking cold, so that the organization that was supposed to help me sleep easily was negated and I was left awake and researching car tires at 2 a.m.

The good news is that I now know what tires I am buying for my car, because, unfortunately, it's that time.

I spent the morning/early afternoon running errands around town with my mom and generally feeling like death warmed over.

I also ended up spending more money than planned and not actually buying the one thing I REALLY wanted to get: hangers.

Who knew it was so hard to find what you want?!

Instead I ended up with new shoes (because the ones I wore tore up my heels in less than ten minutes), a new shirt (because my old one didn't match the new shoes), a valance for my room, closet apparatuses for multiple skirts and pants which is I suppose closely relate to hangers.

Now I'm going to drink Gatorade and pretend like I'll be fine in two hours for a lawn mowing session.

Until then...tally ho!

More Video Goodness

I'm pretty sure we are ready for the Michael Jackson madness to just be done.

Yet here I am posting this video.

But for two reasons: 1) I love acapella and 2) it's just plain ridiculous.

Enjoy! Oh, and maybe one of these days I'll stop being lazy and start actually writing.

Michael Jackson remix @ Yahoo! Video

I Gotta Feeling

I'm not an avid Oprah watcher. Though at this point in my life I kind of have the time for it.

This evening though, some random channel had a clip from her block party kick off and it was awesome.

Or at least part of it was pretty cool.

I mentioned the other day my appreciation for I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas.

Of course the song has been all over the place since. Well, and before really. It was played prior to the kick-off of the NFL season and the Black Eyed Peas performed it on Oprah.

That's not the cool part though. What was really cool was the mob dance that took place.

Check it out.

Stream of Conciousness

Can I just say how excited I am about the new fall TV season. It's mostly because I have no life.

I wouldn't say I'm excited about Black Eyed Peas as a band, even if I do know almost all the words to Where is the Love.

But there is something about I Gotta Feeling that is just plain catchy. I mean, who doesn't want tonight to be a big night?

Speaking of good night, I am REALLY tired. This is because I am on summer sleep mode, but had to wake up early. That was all because of the goodness of my heart.

Woe is me.

Actually, woe is our dog, Jackson, who blew out his ACL and is now more three legged than four. Hauling around 109 lbs. of dog is not easy with only three wheels.

Back to my exhaustion, I'm crawling into bed right now and you can't stop me.

Creepy Crawly

Apparently it's fall already.

The past few days have been blustery, cloudy, and not what I would call 'warm.' And I'm not okay with this change.

But writing about the weather (yawn) is not really the point I have today. My point is: spiders.

I don't like them.

Not in a girly-scream-and-run-away kind of way, but in a bite-me-and-I-swell-up kind of way.

And they're everywhere right now, which I notice because I am our harvesting plots of lawn (a.k.a. mowing lawns) with my father.

It's like a freaking spider obstacle course out there.

If I've learned anything in my life it's that cornered animals (or spiders) attack because they feel threatened, and I'm pretty sure me running into their web face-first would seem like an attack to them.

Instead I have to combine my ninja skills, ballet moves, and cat-like reflexes to not end up covered in Spideys' webs.

The worst part is, there is pretty much nothing I can do about it.

Dogs and more dogs

I am currently house sitting/watching 2 dogs and 2 cats for some family friends. I'm also in charge of watering plants if/when I remember.

At the current moment, however, I have left the critters are contained while I visit my parents house. This is for two reasons. 1) My parents have lots of food. 2) Wireless internet that the house I am staying in has, but is inaccessible without a password which I am too lazy to call and ask for.

Aren't you thankful I dragged myself over here to write yet another stellar though somewhat incoherent blog post?

I thought so.

This morning the dogs (Cosmo and Buddy) and I were hanging out in the yard. Me reading and them sleeping with interspersed attempts to climb into my lap. They are not small dogs.

Car horns honk.

The next thing I know the dogs are sprinting across the unfenced yard toward the road, where two other dogs are sniffing around.

Being the intelligent person I am, I also run toward the gathering of mutts. Because if something happens between these four large dogs, I will most certainly be able to do anything about it.

Upon reaching the strutting, sniffing, posturing dogs I realize my helplessness and stand off to the side. Close enough to yell and wave my arms, far enough that I won't be caught if a melee occurs.

Luckily the visiting dogs run off eventually to stop more traffic. They were probably on a cross-country journey back to their family (like the classic Homeward Bound).

And the rest of us went back to lazing about.

Crisis adverted. Good thing I was there.

Where'd the Time Go?

I just realized that my summer is almost over and it doesn't make me happy at all. I have things I need to get done. Like paint my room, go through the basement including all my stuff, give my car a good cleaning, visit family.

Oh, and I'm house sitting/dog sitting/cat sitting for ten days.

Crap.

If only I knew someone with some time on their hands.

Besides me. I would get all that done before work starts back up full steam on September 23, but I have other important daily rituals to focus on like sleeping in really late, eating a couple good meals, playing with the dogs and wasting numerous hours online.

Priorities, right?

Also, I watch HGTV way to much and now wish I could afford to install one of those nice closet organization systems.

Or I at least wish I had skills to take care of it myself. I have operated a drill before. That's enough right?

Except it could be hazardous for my health. I can be pretty clumsy. Not only do I have some freak accidents in my past (ahem, stapling my fingers together), I just recently fell down our steps in the carport.

No joke. My knee is bruised.

I'm sure a closet couldn't be that hard to do. And how much could it REALLY cost? A couple bucks, I'm pretty sure.

Let's face it, I probably won't do much of any of that. Instead I'll focus on writing long, convoluted blog posts and creating to-do lists in my head.

Done and done.

BTW, you're welcome for all the rhetorical questions. It was my pleasure.

Now excuse me while I go check Facebook. Again. And again.