No, No, No, No, No, No,....Please Don't

Someone make this stop.

Snowing

We got about 3 inches of snow yesterday and expect more ice and snow tonight. Good thing we stocked up on milk and toilet paper.

Maggie is especially interested in the snow, having only experienced it once before (see West Virginia Christmas story). We went to the apartment tennis courts yesterday and let her off her leash to let her explore it on her own. We have mini-tennisballs that she can get in her mouth, but she wasn't interested in the icy tennis ball yesterday. She would run with it for a few seconds and then drop it. After a few minutes we were all too cold to continue, so we went inside and watched Back tot he Future and Back to the Future II on the DVD player. The inDemand video isn't working right now, so even though we purchased Harold and Maude, we weren't able to watch it--rats.

Celebrating Choice

Today is the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As one can imagine, this is quite a big deal at Planned Parenthood. There was a press conference this morning and tonight is Rock n Roe, our benefit concert. All proceeds will go to the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, April 25. (If you are prochoice, plan on being there!)

Being raised Southern Baptist, I have a constant voice in my head that argues against my pro-choice beliefs. It places blame, hands out plenty of guilt, and sounds an awful lot like my old youth minister. When the voice becomes too much, I usually find myself looking around me at the amazing people I work with and the patients we serve everyday. My coworkers are kind, passionate, dedicated people that stand up for the women everyone forgets - minority women, poor women, immigrant women. The patients are always relieved to find a place free of judgment and full of kindness. These people remind me that choice is not really about politics, religion, or government. It is about women and the life decisions they have right to make. Or as my coworker says Pro choice is pro life when women's lives matter.

Spam Poetry (Written at the end of an advertisement for I don't know what)

Support open-source. She will work it out on her own; let her be. I think the purple was better than the blue. What a good idea?
Is it really so different from TV? People like to be spoken to as they speak -- simply and to the point.
I am scared of watching the news and reading the newspaper. Rainbows dont' just appear out of nowhere. I love to kiss and tell. There is a great conspiracy brewing.
He talks and looks like a puppet but loves to be called george. I love you dearly.Will work for happiness. Here's my point: The rich are benefiting at the expense of everyone else. The proposal is going as planned.
Sit back and relax--this will all be over soon. A lot of people are talking about this.I believe in the golden mean. You are my best friend.

Amazon.com marketplace--What did we do before the Internet?

In the past two weeks I have sold three textbooks for about 40 bucks a piece on Amazon.com marketplace. If I tried to sell these books back at the regular bookstore rather than to another poor student, I probably would have gotten about 12 dollars total. I know it doesn't need to be said, but how great is the Internet???

Not much else to say. I have started my last semester of law school. I am excited, but a bit hesitant to end my run as a professional student. Tangentially related to that, I was filling out my Bar application and found myself writing a narrative of the time I got suspended in high school for cursing too much at a soccer game--those were the days. BTW, does anyone remember what date that was? The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners wants to know.

Over the weekend, I noticed that one of Maggie's ears had fallen back down. That's right they were both down, then one was up for about 2 months, now it's back down. Weird...

Clean Sweeping

If you don't know by now, Clean Sweep is new (meaning we ripped the idea off from the Brits) home improvement show on TLC. They clean, they purge, the organize, they decorate.

Inspired by the show, I finally threw out the yard sale stuff. Since I don't have a yard in which to sell and probably won't for awhile. I also purged a lot of books and Nicholas and I sold them around time town.
Nice Price books gave us $15.00
Book Seller gave us $20.00
Books on Ninth gave us $35.00 in store credit to buy more books we don't need.

A grand total of $70.00 (sort of). Way more than we would have made selling them for .25 cents a piece!

Since my husband uses the blog to rant occasionally about sports and my New Year's Resolution was to write on the bog more, I have decided that I will share my thoughts on a subject that is very close to my heart...the upcoming presidential election. It seems appropriate considering the election is exactly ten months to the day away.

I'm not going to predict a winner or any such nonsense because truthfully I have no idea what will happen. I do however know that in the circles I run (excluding DeWayne and my stepdad) everyone wants Bush to lose. The problem is no one is willing to do anything about it. Everyone wants to offer their opinions but no one wants to get up off their butt and do anything. My fear is if this complacency continues we will soon be looking at another four years of Dubya - another four years of war, greed, and everything bad in the world.

If we are to stop this from happening, then we must start campaigning NOW. I don't care who you support. I personally support Dean and spent last night writing letters to citizens of Iowa hopefully convincing them to do the same. However, if you like Kucinich, that's fine. Tell everyone you know about Kucinich. The important thing is not only to inform people how good your candidate is but how truly bad Bush is and how absolutely essential it is that they vote.

It doesn't take much. Spread the word. Pass out flyers. Write letters. I promise you they'll take your help. Lord knows they/we need it. It's now or never and November is just around the corner.

An addition...

Nicholas forgot to add my explanation to said truckers and receptionist of what I do at Planned Parenthood.

I was able to explain the difference between emergency contraception and the abortion pill to both. While as previously mentioned, the receptionist will not be needing EC anytime soon perhaps she will pass on this valuable information to everyone she knows.

Another positive result of the day was that I discovered the BEST new show on TLC called Clean Sweep. All I can say is it involves organizing, decorating AND a yard sale. Can you sincerely ask for anything more?

As Promised, A West Virginia Christmas

Due to the unfortunate passing of Sarah's great-grandmother, we (Sarah, Maggie, and I) started our trek to Paducah on Saturday instead of the next Tuesday so that we could attend the funeral. We had planned to leave Durham at 7:30, reaching Louisville by 4 pm, and then travel the the last 3 hours to Paducah on Sunday so that we could be at the visitation that evening. Unfortunately, someone had other plans for us.

At 11 am, about 20 miles outside of Beckley, West Virginia (for you regular Sarah and Nicholas followers, you know that Beckley holds a special place in our hearts), the engine in the previously trusty and problem-free Corolla began to rev really high. Since there is no tachometer in the car, my first thought was that it was just the mountain incline, the thin air, and the fact that we were in a storm that was dumping 5 inches of snow on the snowy peaks of Central West Virginia. I was wrong.

As we continued, the engine revving got louder and when I slowed and put the car into fourth, the transmission didn't respond properly. We pulled over and (after I freaked out for a few seconds) decided that we needed to see if we could make it to the next exit. To its credit, the Corolla made it the 2 miles to the next exit, where we pulled into the nearest gas station and started demanding answers (Well, actually we just asked where the nearest service station was.) This being Saturday, we were pretty unhopeful of finding someone to fix our car, and had resigned ourselves to live in West Virginia for the rest of our lives.

After determining where the nearest service station was, we got back in the car and made it about a block before the car decided that it had taken enough abuse that day and that it was not going to move any longer, no matter how much we begged it. At this point, the first kindness of strangers moment occurred as the man behind us jumped out of his car and began to help me push the car to the next closest gas station, about 75 feet. He then disappeared without a trace (that is, he got back in his car and went home). At this service station, things really started to look bad as the manager told us that the service station we were going to was closed. Fortunately, another stranger overheard us and informed us that he knew a place that might be able to fix our car, and might be able to do it "today." Needless to say, I was a little bit incredulous at this possibility. I knew that we'd need a new part and that this was at least a 4 hour job, if not more. The mysterious stranger (we'll call him Jim, since that was his name) called the station and ordered us a tow truck and told the manager to "treat us right." He also informed us that we were in Ghent, WV (pronounced "jent" as in gentleman, despite the famous treaty of the same name which is pronounced with a hard G).

After about 20 minutes of waiting in the car, the tow came and (after we pushed the car into three different places to position it for the tow), took us down the back roads of Ghent, Beaver, and Beckley until finally we came to a turn off. Almost immediately I got an eerie feeling, as there was no service station actually within the sightline of the road. Thoughts of Jim telling them to "treat us right" raced through my head, as I bemoaned our decision not to train Maggie to sic. Fortunately, after a few turns, we were at a large service station/junkyard and they unloaded our car. Though we were uncertain about our fate for the day, we thought that the worst of it was over. We were only partly right.

After unloading Maggie and a few of our belongings from the car, we were told that we should go sit in the lounge and wait while they worked on some of the other vehicles that they had in the shop. In the lounge on top of the painted concrete were two faux-leather couches, a TV (with cable), and two 30-40 something truckers. They were watching Fox News and talking when we walked in, dog in tow (because she wouldn't willingly walk across the concrete--primadonna) and plopped down on the couch. Being the second-comers, we didn't get a say in what we watched, so we got to see a fair and balanced look at the war on terror for about an hour and a half, with the two truckers (who were exceedingly nice), discussing their takes on the issues of the day and talking about what it was that was wrong with their trucks. Eventually, one of them got to move on and the other had to go discuss his vehicle with the mechanic, so Sarah used this window to change the station to TLC. When the trucker returned, she decided that instead of changing the station back, she would try to convince him that "What Not to Wear" was entertainment the whole family could enjoy. She explained to him the premise of the show and as they watched, they both commented on the progress of the young high-school teacher that was being made over. At one point, this exchange occurred:

Trucker (talking about the male fashion consultant on the show): That one's queer ain't he?

Sarah: Yes, I think he's a homosexual.

Me: (Stifled laughter)


And a few minutes later:

Trucker: I need to get my daughter on this show.

Sarah: Really, why is that?

Trucker: All she ever wears is black...I mean, she ain't one of those Goths, but she wears a lot of black.

Sarah: Ohh...

By the time of the reveal on "What Not to Wear," the second driver had left, but not before giving us a case of bite size Quaker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, which were (and continue to be) delicious. On a side note, apparently it's not uncommon for drivers to take or give away some of their inventory. The dispatcher at the mechanic's told us that he had a year's supply of detergent from the last time they fixed a Big Lots truck.

By this time it was about 1:00 and out car had just been moved into the mechanic's bay. Much to noone's surprise, at about 1:10, the mechanic came to the conclusion that our clutch was burnt out and would have to be replaced. I was not hopeful that he would be able to fix it by close of business, but he then informed me that they have mechanics on staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (including Christmas). Unfortunately, he also told me that he wouldn't be able to work on the car straight through the day because he would have to go out occasionally to do roadside repairs. He told me that if he could get the part, he could have probably have us on our way by 7 or 8. This was a lie, but at least it was a little lie. He also told me that it would take about 5 hours to fix and gave me an estimate of about 550 dollars. Meanwhile, Sarah sat in the lounge and began to go slowly crazy.

After several hours and a number of circuits around the junkyard (with and without the dog), it didn't look like we were going to get close to leaving by 8, and Sarah began to cross-stitch "All wait and no drive make Sarah go crazy" over and over again. She also began to ask for a time estimate about ever hour from 6 on, each time being told that it would be a "couple more hours." It was a little bit like "Groundhog Day." We also started to talk to the night dispatcher and the night-shift tow drivers. The two drivers were pretty strange. One of them suggested that the other might sodomize our dog, making West Virginians everywhere proud that their reputations as strange and toothless people was not to be thwarted by the kindness of the rest of the people we met that day.

The night dispatcher, after hearing about Sarah's job, also informed us that she "couldn't have no more babies" because, as she put it,"I's spayed." Sarah then left the room and reentered with an axe, screaming "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!!!" (Okay, so The Shining references are getting a little ridiculous, but we really felt at some point like we might never leave the driver's lounge, and the snow storm made the effect all the more creepy).

We also found out about the newest craze in potpourri. The night dispatcher had a plush teddy bear dipped in scented wax which is used as an air freshener. Apparently they are hot sellers and "if the smell ever goes away, you just hea tit with a hair dryer and the smell will come back." We resisted the temptation to ask where we could purchase one, mostly because, as Sarah put it, "the bear smelled like rancid cough syrup."

Finally, at about 10:30, the mechanic took our car for a test drive to make sure it shifted correctly and (after another thirty minutes of tinkering because it was "making a sound.") we paid for the repair and tow (580 dollars altogether, of which the 80 for the tow is going to be reimbursed by AAA), and headed to Louisville at 11 pm, arriving at 3 am to a surprisingly still awake Elizabeth, Shelly, and Aimee.

For all of the strange events we are truly thankful for all of the people in Ghent and Beckley who actually cared about our predicament and helped us to (miraculously) get a relatively major car repair done for a fair price, on the Saturday before Christmas. Sarah has made a full recovery from her stir-craziness, and Maggie survived, too. I, however, never want to travel again.

West Virginia Story Coming Soon

On our way to Kentucky our clutch burnt out and we were stuck in a mechanic's lounge in West Virginia for 11 hours. (The mechanic is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day). Hilarity did not ensue. More later. Merry Christmas.

Funny, in that The Onion-sort-of-not-that-funny-anymore way


So-Called Obese Pets Held To Unrealistic Body Standards

Ah, well, there's always next year

Decatur lost to Buford in the state semi-final. I think the final score was 42-13. That's a shame, but at least the Bulldogs can be proud of a great season, and build on this next year.

Can this man make Duke football great again?

No sportsfans, I speak not of Ted Roof, newly installed head coach of Duke University Football, but rather of Duke's Next President, Richard H. Brodhead, current dean at Yale and and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English at Yale University. He was chosen recently to replace Nannerl Keohane, and once knew the man that his professorship is named after, the same Bart Giamatti who was Commissioner of Major League Baseball and kicked Pete Rose out. Most importantly, though, he says that he is an "avid college sports fan, which I clearly will have an opportunity to experience at Duke." He's probably talking about basketball (you can't have a discussion about Duke anywhere without someone talking about the basketball Blue Devils), but I hope he doesn't forget the best sport in the land.

Either way, his name is WAY easier to say than President Keohane's.

Aaaaaaacccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk....(Or, How I Came to Love One of the Largest Financial Institutions in the Country)

So, since Sarah and I have started a budget, I have stopped obsessing about checking our account balances online every fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, today this bit me in the ass to the tune of 120 bucks in overdraft fees. I was none too pleased, and I still haven't figured out what happened accounting wise (though I have taken the precaution of now assuming that we have about 125 bucks less than we do according to the latest B of A statement). Because of the amount and the fact that we don't really have 120 bucks to give the bank, I decided that I should overcome my fear of talking to people and call to see if anything could be done to salvage a generally crappy afternoon. Turns out there was.

I calmly explained myself to the uber-polite Bank of America representative that I thought that I had "overdraft protection" on my account (and, honest to God, I thought I did, I can probably even find the literature about it), and that this should protect me from exactly this eventuality (buying a 3 dollar coffee and getting a 30 dollar fee), by transferring 100 dollars into my account automatically for a five dollar fee. She looked at my accounts, and found that for some odd reason I did not have said protection, but that she would link my accounts from here on out, and would credit me for the 3, 30 dollar fees that were visible on her screen (the last one is still pending, and she said it may not actually show up, but if it did to call.) Thus, as of now I stand only 30 dollars in the hole for my stupid mistake. Though I had thought about changing banks in the near future, I have decided that Bank of America has earned my business for as long as I can find a close-by ATM. I guess it never hurts to ask.

Update: I called today and got the last charge refunded. Woo-hoo!

New Comments

Although Squawkbox always told me that it was a "free" commenting service, apparently that's only good for a year. I was informed that I would pretty soon be required to pay for their service. Therefore, being the extreme cheapskate that I am, I have switched to Haloscan, which is not only free, but also has more features than Squawkbox.

Unfortunately, all of the old comments have gone away, never to return. I know this is a blow to all of you who frequent this blog to reminisce about the old days when you commented on our spelling and grammar, but, alas, those days are no more. (At least until you make new comments about our spelling and grammar. (Hey, you leave my grammar out of this!))

That sucks

Though it doesn't damper my excitement much, it's a little disheartening to know that the team that Decatur plays next has won 43 in a row, and that their running back is attempting to break the single-season touchdown record shared by Herschel Walker and Charles Grant. Ah well, maybe he'll go to UGA, where I can one day cheer him on. Kind of like Tim Wansley (also from Buford).

Exams are sucky. I have Federal Income Tax on Friday. I often wonder why I decided to take this class, and I still don't know.

Wow

Could it really be true that Decatur High School is in the semi-finals of the state championship for AA? They play Buford next and they get to play in the Georgia Dome. Tonihgt in the Georgia Dome, UGA plays LSU for the SEC Championship.

I really don't like the fact that one of the most exciting weeks in college football falls in the middle of exams. I was going to make a cheesy law school joke, but I've decided against it....

The Past Couple Weeks

A quick update:

Sarah is absolutely loving her job.

Maggie was spayed, micro-chipped, and received her first rabies shot. I think the experience was more stressful for us than it was for her. She also chipped a canine tooth, which required another trip to the vet. The vet says her tooth is fine (she's going to lose it anyway), and since she was Maggie's foster mother, there was no charge for the visit. She will be traveling with us to Atlanta over the break. The parents have graciously allowed us to give this a try, so we'll see how Maggie deals with the scent of cat in the air.

School is going along quickly. I'm rapidly approaching the "oh-shit-it's-exam time already" stage. Though I don't think I'll be in any way laid back this time around, having a job already for next year certainly takes the pressure off.

In the future:

Sarah is traveling to Lexington this weekend to throw a baby shower for her friend Elizabeth, who is expecting in January. I will be remaining at home to study and spend some quality time with my favorite dog. I hope Maggie has some insights into the Earned Income Tax Credit that she could share with me.

Dog Alarm Clock

If anyone wants to know when it's 7:30 am, just ask Maggie.