i got a new sound system for my living room, so now my aiwa 3-cd changer and speakers are out of commission. they still work awesome and the only thing wrong is the second tape player doesn’t stay shut and is taped shut for now. anyone want them? i paid about $170 for them 4 years ago, make an offer. no dolby, but the sound is pretty darn good.
memorial day weekend is one that i truly miss from my youth. in my mind, it was one of the most perfect weekends of the year, with the underlying current of excitement of the end of the school year, possibly a trip out west coming up quickly, and the inevitably perfect day for memorial day.
for some reason, the day is always sunny and 75 in my mind. we would meet at the cemetery early in the morning with my dad’s side of the family, where kathleen had set out on her trunk flowers she had picked up from a gardening store the day before. the cemetery is one of the prettier ones i’ve seen, with sweeping willow trees and large oaks lining the drive. the sun dappled through the leaves while we visited relatives’ graves (relatives i had never met, and relied solely on memories and stories to form them in my mind).
afterward we went to todd park, where we had a picnic at the twirly slide and spent the afternoon running around on the park equipment and wading in the ice-cold spring-fed river that ran through the park.
this past weekend my grandma and i drove the 6 hours out to mandan for my cousin lori’s grad party. it’s always a lot of driving, and the weekend always seems cut short because of the drive. but it was a good time, and the weather cooperated pretty well, considering it was supposed to be kind of icky out. i got a nice sunburn, so that was fun. sam was as annoying as ever, but i got to see lori and karl and jane and charlie, and it’s always nice to hang with my sibs.
for pics: http://www.katew.com/lori
happy bday to me! ugh…28.
*Sigh*
In light of the passage of $95 billion (yes, billion) to pay for the Iraq “war” through September (yes, only September), I propose a new way of allotting income taxes to which cause.
Why not let taxpayers themselves choose where their taxes go? It can’t be difficult in this information age to let people check off what percentage of their taxes go to what and have an automated system that breaks down total percentage after all taxes are in. A certain percentage would be taken out for stuff everybody wants, like public education and transportation funding, but the remaining would be divvied up to how you prescribe.
Say I want 50% of my taxes to go to social programs like welfare, women’s shelters and homeless prevention, and 50% to help the environment, and the yahoo republican (I’m sure he’s republican) upstairs wants 100% of his to go to the war effort. So be it. That way, I am sure that none of the taxes I pay go to crap I don’t feel needs to be funded.
It can’t be difficult. All they’re dealing with then is simple economics and pie charts.
But, oh wait, it would probably put politicians out of a job.
i am putting in my two months’ notice at the end of this month. which means i need to find a place to live in the next two months. arg. i hate house shopping. i’d much rather rent a house or even BUY a house, but since nate’s income is questionable at most, i guess i’ll have to move to another apartment.
arg.
and on top of that, his car is in the shop to get its timing chains fixed, and they did a diagnostic and found a total of $2400 worth of stuff that needs to be fixed. ugh. i’m slowly dying here, help me.
but on a lighter note, nate is trying to quit smoking. we’ll see how that goes. last time he tried he lasted 2 days.
poo and all that.
Yesterday afternoon the governor signed into effect the smoking ban for Minnesota.
You know me, normally I have a lot to say about different political issues, but this is one issue where I can see both sides of the fence, and I’m sitting firmly on the fencepost.
Personally, it doesn’t affect me. I don’t smoke, and I’m not going to raise a fuss if I have to go to a restaurant where there’s a smoking section. I sit in smoking sections. I don’t particularly like inhaling smoke along with my food, but if the food is good, I’ll deal with it. I think if all places were required to install high-end ventilation systems, that might have been sufficient.
So, the two sides. First, the pro-ban side.
Second-hand smoke affects people other than smokers. I inhale second-hand smoke and it’s possible I get lung cancer. the issue here is that when I go to a restaurant, bar, bowling alley, etc., my right to breathe clean air is diminished by the smokers.
Sure, I can choose not to go to that establishment,And whose rights trump whose?
But concerning the health of people who work at these establishments, it doesn’t really make sense to have passed the clean air act way back when for most workplaces to be smokefree, and then have a big chunk of the workforce still working in places where smoking is allowed.
i have expressed my interest in nanowrimo earlier, and now it’s time to kick into gear. if i really want to do this, i need to come up with a storyline beforehand so i can have something to follow and a guide for the month that i write. so, i did some brainstorming and here’s some ideas i’ve come up with so far (italicized are the ones i am most intrested in doing):
familial
a rebel with sisterly issues
single child with parental issues
elderly woman moving from home to in with her children
elemental
becoming green and its challenges
helping others (move to other country or delve into US poor)
surviving getting lost/stuck/trapped in nature (like boundary waters)
futuristic
the big 2012 extravaganza, (could do in a 3 years ago..3 months ago..2 months ago.. format)
moving to another planet
self-examination
the quarter-life crisis
paying your dues to get in good
change
religious examination
fantasy
retell a fairy tale with a twist, a la robin mckinley
heroine saves the day somehow (been there done that)
some of these would require some research, and the two that intrigue me the most would be the ones i would need to research a little, or a lot.
any preferences? any other ideas? i will expect all of you to read this when i’m done with it (it won’t be THAT long, come on!).
yesterday i woke up after 3.5 hours of sleep due to my neighbors and got ready to go to a monther-daughter banquet with my mom, grandma and jane. it went on and on and on and on. it was more like “show off my granddaughter day” for the organizer. these little girls were singing and singing and singing and they wouldn’t stop!! ack!
anyway, it was organized by a catholic organization of the st cloud diocese and there was a bunch of “respect life” brochures, books, placemats, etc. all over.
and then during the program they prayed for the military. a LOT.
does anyone see the irony here?
well, my mom certainly had a lot to say after the program.
for instance, why do we feel so awful and up in arms when the reserve is called to serve in iraq? they VOLUNTEERED for it. and that’s what the job description is!!
second, they are trained to kill people, and being pro-life as a catholic means respecting all life, including military and iraqis. (especially when we’re sticking ourselves amidst a civil war that isn’t our own.) Killing people is killing people.
and, this is a good point she made, if we pray for the military, why aren’t we giving equal praying time for abortionists? or the dude who gives the lethal injection or throws the chair switch? according to catholic dogma, the end result is all the same.
and then we went shopping, which isn’t really shopping with jane and mom. it’s more like hurry up and get the thing you need and get out. i need liz back to go real shopping!
no job. who does that??? all she said was that they narrowed it to 2 candidates and i wasn’t one of them, and can she keep my resume on file. that could have been said on a message. she did say my interview was “dynamite” though. the other peeps just had a broader background in graphic design, something i can’t really compete with. my 8 yrs experience versus 16? or my newspaper versus advertising agency? eh, i’m apathetic now.
so i have another interview on wednesday AM for a copywriter at creative memories. something i have never interviewed for. this should be interesting. i am totally not expecting to get that job, but it will be nice to have interviewed for a non-graphics job.
ok, so i get a message today at 4:20, and it’s the lady from und. she says: “i’m sorry i was not able to reach you and i probably will be getting back to you on monday. i’d like to talk to you a little bit in person.”
ok, what does that mean???
good, and she wants to talk to me about the job offer, etc?
or
bad, and she just wants to thank me for my time and blah blah blah.
i’ve made a recording, so you can hear it. it’s an mp3.
now i have to wait til monday!!