PhilaPA ~ Day 1

Flight from LAX to Denver? One crying baby, one restless, whiny toddler.

Flight from Denver to PhilaPA? FOUR crying babies, restless and whiny toddlers. Plus one annoyed 41-year old with iPod ears (music turned up too loud but it drowned out the Fab Four).

Other than that? Uneventful flight. Hooray!

Arrived at the hotel around 8 o'clock and all I wanted was a beer and soup or a sandwich. I located Marathon Grill and started walking. That's when I saw the lovely yellow sign: $5 Footlongs. SOLD! Grabbed a sandwich, back to the room. Texts, food, some cable TV then a crash headlong into the bed.

Ahh...vacation. This is what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Tomorrow ~ the hotel

I'm so excited - and I just can't hide it!

Psst! Hey...c'mere...guess what...

MY CAR IS PAID OFF!

Uh huh! My. Car. Is. Paid. OFF. Woo hooooo!

backbackbackmineminemine! (Looney Tunes reference)

That frees up more than $300/month - what a relief. Especially since my 401k dropped. Alot.

Anyway...my car is paid off.

The Plan

I bought a Philadelphia CityPass the other day for $54.00 - which isn't such a bad deal. That $54 covers my admission to the zoo, the Ben Franklin Science museum, the National Constitution Center, the aquarium (yay!) and a few others. This is The Plan (subject to change):

Saturday ~ arrive; settle; dinner/drinks with friends.
Sunday ~ Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the Rocky steps) and the Rodin museum; the Planetarium/Franklin Science museum, if time.
Monday ~ zoo or aquarium - depends upon the weather
Tuesday ~ Election Day! Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross's house, Constitution Museum; then back to the hotel to watch the results. I am so ridiculously excited about this election!
Wednesday ~ whatever I haven't done already
Thursday ~ tea with a dear friend
Friday - Saturday ~ hang with the gang for Lys's birthday, shopping will be in there somewhere
Sunday ~ some football, then head home.

Full week o'stuff will make for a full week o'blog stuff. Yay!

~ Happy Birthday to my brother! ~

It's National Blog Posting Month!

Today marks Day 1 of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo also referred to here as NaBlahBlah)! I'm excited about getting back to posting here on the regular. We'll see if I can last the whole month...

Today also marks Day 1 of my vacation! Yippeee! I'm leaving on a jet plane, headed to the City of Brotherly Love for one week. Ahh...vacation...no work emails, no work phones, no work people, no work period. Yippeee! I'll be playing tourist ~ Betsy Ross's house, National Constitution Center, Liberty Bell, Geno's, Jim's and Pat's for cheesesteaks. Should be a great time.

As I write this (9:40 p.m. Halloween night) I've yet to finish packing. Sigh Yeah, I know. I had to get a bigger suitcase for the bulky sweaters and such. The stuff that's in there? I've done a swell job of packing ~ most of it is rolled. What a concept! I thought it would be just as bulky as folding and stacking. It isn't. The stuff fits quite nicely. The downer? No room for shoes. Well, if I had shoes, there'd be no room. Ugh. I don't have boots or other cold weather shoes. I live in California. And I have big feet. Anyway, I've thrown 3 pairs into a carry-on and will just have to hope for the best.

OK, Kids...enjoy your week! I'll stop by if I can to post some real time stuff.

And with that...I. Am. Out.

Toodle-loooo!

I'm liking this Facebook thing

I joined Facebook one week ago. I thought it would be another myspace thing ~ a bunch of people I barely know wanting to be my friend in order to promote their band/music/cause/whatever. Wow - it's been a tremendous connection vehicle!

At first, I was accepting friend requests simply because he/she asked. Not anymore. I'm viewing FB as much more personal, intimate connection therefore being more selective. I've connected with classmates from high school ~ including a former teacher; former students from my years of teaching and interpreting; former co-workers, current co-workers and my very close friends.

However, the connections that are most special to me are the ones I'm making with my sorority sisters - Alpha Sigma Theta at CSUN. I can't believe I've found these women after almost 20 years! One sister has pictures posted - and I was in one of the pics. Good grief! My hair was biiig and very 80s (thank you KMS Ice hairfreeze). At the time I thought I looked goood. :)

Those were wonderful times; brief - too brief - but wonderful. I hope to connect with many more...

Thanks, Facebook!

What kind of fool am I?

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo also known affectionately as NaBlahBlah) starts Saturday, November 1st. And I signed up again. Uh...yeah. I'll be on vacation the first week of November. And I don't have a laptop. Ugh.

I'm trying out this Blogger feature that allows your pre-written blog to post at a later date. Let's hope it works!

Sadly, it doesn't give me a week's worth of blogging topics...

Can he really do this?! WTH?!

originally posted by beatgirl 10/28/08

- unbelieveable -

I cannot believe what I witnessed today...

I was at the downtown [Portland OR] Rite-Aid, standing in line at the pharmacy.
There were two girls in front of me and one was picking up her prescription.
I over heard the cashier say "Your prescription is ready but you wont be able to pick it up today. You will have to wait until tomorrow"

The girl was confused...as was I over hearing this.

The girl said "If my prescription is ready, why cant I pick it up? I need it today. "

She was a little frantic.

She said to the cashier "Its Plan B. I cant wait until tomorrow. Whats the problem?"

The pharmacist approached the counter and said "I have your prescription. I will not dispense it to you because it is against my religious beliefs. There will be another pharmacist working tomorrow. You can pick it up then."

My jaw hit the floor

Who the fuck is this guy? Who is he to impose his personal beliefs on customers? What if this girl was raped? Who the fuck cares what the reason she needed it for...who the hell does he think he is? Besides in the wrong profession.

The girl turned to me with a shocked look on her face and said "Can he do that?"

I said "I dont think so" I then gave her directions to another pharmacy in the area.

I proceeded (along with several of my girlfriends) to call the Rite Aid corporate offices and complain.

They were mortified. They said they would contact the store and find out what happened.

We then received a call from the pharmacy manager of the downtown store. She said that although she apologises for me overhearing the conversation that should have been more confidential, that the pharmacist has the choice of whether to dispense medication based on his beliefs.

WTF????

I went off on the manager for awhile and then told her that I will never step foot in Rite-Aid again.

And I wont.

This is not over.

~ Can he really do this?? I am stunned. I need to google this...

well I may be the Mayor of Simpleton...

That Girl has been texting me for two weeks about this myspace application called 'YoVille' ~ "Girl, you should join, it's so much fun! You get an avatar and an apartment to decorate!"

So, of course, I check it out.

And, she ain't lying!

Check out YoVille, people. Design your avatar, go into town, meet people at the Coffee Shop, buy stuff at YoDepot to decorate your apartment, eat at Vinny's Diner to increase your energy and speed (how quickly you move through town), go to work at the Widget Factory, challenge others in town to quick games of Rock/Paper/Scissors or Tic Tac Toe (if you win, you get coins). It's pretty cool to explore and wander around the town ~ I was in the coffee shop yesterday and broke out into the Robot dance! w00t w00t

Yes, it's a tremendous time-waster.

Yes, I'm a tremendous Simpleton.

Who cares ~ it's fun! Thanks ThatGirl!

Everybody's doing it...

I like myspace. I do! Music, friends, blogs, stuff. I just like it.

Several friends have told me about facebook, encouraging me to join. When asked 'Why? What's the difference?' no one could tell me. 'It's just better...' didn't quite cut it. It took a threat from Chickens for me to even look at FB. And am I glad I did!

I joined (read: succumbed to peer pressure) on Friday and I've reconnected with so many people: high school friends, my first high school English teacher, several of my Alpha Sigma Theta sisters from CSUN. Incredible! I spent several hours clicking through photos and updates, posting comments, catching up. Tons of warm and wonderful memories rushed over me. Yeah, sounds corny - I know. But it's the only way to describe it!

The only thing that bugs me? Everyone wants to know about my brother! ;)

...Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn't already have

There's a girl who lives in my building named E. We used to be friends ~ hang out, chat on the stairs, dinner, watch TV, shopping, drinking and all kinds o'fun with a group of mutual friends. Good times, yo ~ and I have pics to prove it :)

A couple of years ago, she began to withdraw from the group. Each of us reached out in some way to her, knowing the risk of pushing her away for good was a true possibility. Each of us let her be herself and work out her stuff.

A year ago, our group of friends unraveled and split. It was a hit from left field and truly caused [somewhat of] a downward spiral ~ questioning all sorts of things about me, what a true friend is, who my true friends are, etc. In the split, E denounced 3 of us (whose friendship remains) and rekindled her friendship with 2 others. The whole thing made for a sad situation really. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hurt.

E still lives upstairs and I see her on rare occasions. One all-too-familiar scenario makes me laugh every single time - she will be walking out of her apartment, I'll be walking up the stairs to mine and she'll back into the alcove to avoid me. Really?! Are you kidding me with that?? There have been times when our paths have crossed on the stairs or at the mailboxes...and she looks right through me. Right through me. As though I am nothing. It's a weird feeling - trust me. I mean, I look at strangers and give something - eye contact, a nod, a smile, something...something. I get nothing. I've said hi on previous encounters and watched her squirm in her discomfort. A painful sounding grunt came out once. So, I stopped.

For all the sadness and hurt I feel at losing friends, can you believe I'm civil enough and aware enough to go out of my way in order to ease HER discomfort? Huh...who really lost a friend in this situation.

As emotional as I can get sometimes, I am definitely happy to have a heart.

Like the Alan Parsons Project says: I wouldn't want to be like you.