Places to Go....

Just a few places I think you should visit today. They made me laugh. And as you are visiting, please remember that I am non-partisan.... and still entertained.

Become Republican
GW's Hottest New Rap Video

I Blog for Tina.... The Story of Evan and Meagan. Viewer Discretion Advised.

Tina, in Prague, obviously does not know the story of Evan and Meagan. SO at her request, I will tell it, as shortly as I can, beginning with the beginning, 1995. I am also going to be brutally honest. So for those of you who have never heard everything that led me to Evan, I apologize, and don't think any of this is elaborated for the web, because in the past, I found it easier not to talk about some things that happened before Evan.

Evan's parents went to school with my mom. They were in the same class. They are the same age. Evan's dad's birthday is two day's after my mom's.

in 1995, four school districts in our area combined and consolidated to form Bureau Valley High School. I spent my first and only year there as a senior, with 90 new classmates (from 17 in my class at Manlius to 110 people in my class at Bureau Valley.) I went to a new building. We had new classes. I met Evan. He, like me, was in Art. He was also in my PE class. It was the only Co-ed PE class in the entire school, and we all had SO much fun with it. That's where I met many of my newest friends. We played Hockey and soccer and I had a blast.

Evan had a girlfriend (okay, a few- but they never lasted longer than a couple of months.) and I had a boyfriend. But I would eye Evan. But I LOVED my boyfriend so I pretty much dismissed it. Evan and I became friends. The following spring my boyfriend, who I LOVED in a first love kind of way, broke up with me. At the time I was just crushed. I mean we were going to get MARRIED, right? But I didn't have my eyes in reality, like the fact that we fought too much, and that he was a physical fighter, and I would fight right back, kicking and screaming. I had a mouth that would scare anyone away. One day he got me cornered, he swung at my face and I ducked. He hit the wall and I stood up and swung at him. I caught him in the face with a left hook and my ring cut his cheek open under his eye. After I hit him, I hightailed it out of his house like a Bat out of hell, because I thought that after I hit him, he would kill me.

At one point, my boyfriend at the time, and Evan, got into a fight at a home football game. There were other reasons for the fight besides me, but I am sure I had a little something to do with it. Ex probably didn't like that I even talked to Evan, let alone stuck up for him. I got in the middle and stopped it. There was no fight, not because my boyfriend listened to me, but because Evan listened to me. My boyfriend was a high school dropout, looking for his GED, and had what I put into perspective as a hard life and an unfair start- no dad, lived with his grandparents, his friends were a state away, saw his mom like 4 times a year and his brother once a year, the whole deal. He was generally a considerate and loving person. But he was also very protective, very jealous, and posessive. He also could get very angry, very fast, and was not afraid to take a swing at his own girlfriend. We had a relationship that involved a lot of fighting. I am a pretty strong willed person, and we were both very young, and that made things worse. We really weren't a good match... but we were so involved it was hard to see at the time. I try to have no hard feelings, and I wouldn't take any of it back for anything, because I learned alot and I got to experience what love can be like and I got to learn how to get over "love."

But I guess it took me a while to realize that I loved the person that he was trying to be, and that I thought he could be, and not the person he actually was. I was REALLY young. I was 15 or 16 at the time and I met him at church (strange) and we sang in the choir together. But that really was no reflection of what he was like. He used to have this thing about threatening to take me and have a group of gang members (or their girlfriends) beat me up with wrenches. I tried never to take him seriously, but if he got mad at me, he would drive me 45 minutes away to scare me and I remember thinking I would just jump out of the moving car and scream at a passerby to get away from him. And other times if he got mad at me, he would take me out in the country and make me get out of the car in the middle of the night. He would leave me there along the road, usually next to a stop sign, and drive away, and come back to get me like 10 minutes later. I guess that that 10 minutes was supposed to teach me a lesson about how much I was supposed to appreciate him. I don't know. A smarter me would have dropped him instantly. But at the time, you just don't realize. Sometimes I find myself wondering if he was ever that way with his next girlfriend, his current wife, and I feel badly for her. But I suppose that we just had this volatile relationship, I don't know. And just like I learned my lesson, he probably learned his- Anyway, enough about that, the past is behind us.

So anyway, of course I went through the lost your first love, heartbroken thing. My Ex and I had dated a year, which to a 16 year old was ETERNITY! Evan still had a girlfriend. Now at the time, my ex had promised that we would still go to prom together, as we had planned, and we were still "friends" for about 4 months or so after we broke up. I had every intention of asking Evan to prom. He was a sophomore and I was a senior. But he was only 1 year and 6 days younger than me. Everyone thought he was hot, and he had a girlfriend, so I figured no chance of getting him to go with me. Then one day he wrote me a note, that got passed to me through a friend, that said that I had " a nice ass" and then I started to think that girlfriend might not be as important to him as it seemed.

I would take the "long way" to class because I knew I would run into him in the hall and I could chat with him, but usually his girlfriend was glued to his arm. Soon after that (although it seemed FOREVER) they just broke up, and after that, my ex let me know that he didn't want to go to prom with me. So I asked Evan, and he, by the time I asked him, had been "arranged" as a date for his brother's girlfriend's cousin (decipher that one) at the time. So by the time I asked, he was all upset about why didn't I ask earlier. But luckily we were both going to prom. So I went with a different guy friend, who looked great in a tux.... but I spent the entire night at prom dancing with Evan, gave him my garter, and then we spent after prom together playing games and basketball at afterprom (at a rec center.)

So we kind of did the "we're not technically dating" thing then, because school was out for the summer. He went to France over the summer and one of my best friends went too, so she was my fly on the wall. I would go to town to see him and hang out with friends at the park while they played basketball. I would ride around with him and friends. At this time I was still "friends" with my ex- and he was leading me on pretty heavily. Apparently he wanted his cake and to eat it too. Luckily we had mutual friends (who were guys) who I have to credit and give thanks to- to this day. I remember wanting to go out on a date with Evan but being totally worried about my ex and what he would think. I was at the friend's house and It was the time of summer festivals, and I had on a tiny denim skirt (I was much skinnier then) and a cute top and sandals, and they were always saying "you look hot, forget him and go out on a date!" and eventually the only way they got me to forget about the ex and move on, was because they told me that he was messing around with other girls and they were able to name names, which he blatantly denied and hid the entire time- but I knew better now because once I heard those names, things just sort of went "ding" in my head. Now I knew why that girl waited by my locker each day for me, and why she was always talking about my ex and trying to be my best buddy. She used to buy bags of skittles and pick out all the colors and leave the yellow ones in my locker because yellow was my favorite color. She wanted to be my best buddy, and she was screwing my ex behind my back.

So right then and there, I knew it was time to move forward. We were not meant to be together. Period. If you love someone, you don't cheat.

So Evan and I scheduled a date. He didn't show up. I got all ready and was all dressed and waiting by the door and he never showed. I was crushed. AND I was pissed! The answer I got later (and frequently the first two years we dated) was "plans changed." So we rescheduled (can't believe I even did that- from this, I sound like I am walked all over, but I am really the very exact opposite personality!) and then he also didn't show up. A friend called me and she had SEEN HIM in town with my EX! @!*#)*?^ So I was pissed. Come to find out, Ex knew about the date and was trying to sabotage it by getting Evan drunk. Anyway, Weeks later I spent a whole Saturday with the Ex, and had a great day, and then that night had a date with Evan, and when we drove through town, who was standing on the sidewalk with friends but Ex, with his jaw on the ground. After all, I had spent the day with him and was going on a date with Evan that night, and never mentioned it. It made me feel SOOOOOO good. I will never, as long as I live, forget the look on ex's face that day on the sidewalk. I was cured. No more broked heart!

So from that point forward, I thought about Evan. We dated on and off. I remember I started college in August and he went back to High School. I started a job at Farm King part time. I was supposed to cover the Ag department, and work part time around my school schedule. After 3 days on the job they had me working 10 hour days and covering three departments, including plumbing and electrical, which I knew nothing about. The last straw was the day that I went to work wearing the black skirt they had hired me in, and they told me it was too short and it was unprofessional. I was so pissed, it was only too short because they didn't have the right sized smocks, and they were so long they went to my knees and you couldn't tell I even had pants on. So I stomped up the the manager's office, called him a pig because if that skirt was good enough to hire me in, it was good enough to work in. Then I quit and marched right out the door and right to Evan's house. I told him the whole story and I felt much better. He took care of me.

That was August. in September Evan took my to the tatoo parlor because I wanted my nose pierced. I was 17. They never asked how old I was. My dad saw it and grounded me for 3 months. on October 20th, Evan asked me out. He'd been coming to my house for a month because I was grounded, and Evan started missing me. We went on a walk and we were up on a hill surrounded by pine trees and we were lying on our backs looking at the stars and he said "will you go out with me?" and I said "No, I am grounded, you know I can't go anywhere." and he got all flustered and I said "Oh, like be your GIRLFRIEND go out" and he was like Yeah, and I said yes. And he hugged me and gave me a kiss, and that was exactly 9 years ago this October 20th.

We made it through my college and his high school, and through him moving to Davenport, Iowa for school and me staying home, an hour from him. That was hard and I was sad. His living arrangements at the time made him upset, and so when he came home, I was the happiest person there is. His mom wasn't happy he was home, but boy was I ever. I had enjoyed going to spend weekends with him, but I missed him being right there. I would cry so much on Sundays when we had to split up, he bought me a gameboy color to play and I ate Ice cream every Sunday night. It was dramatic. Not long after he moved home, we moved in together. And we have lived together for 5 years this month.

I remember once, we had been dating 4 months, and it was just a couple of days before our first ever Valentine's Day, and we were sitting in his car and he tried to break up with me. I was completely panicked. I thought "he got what he wanted, now he is done." But deep down I had this feeling that this was not coming from him, and if it was, it was pure panic. I talked him out of it, and ever since then, we've been together. I can't imagine ever being with anyone else. No matter how mad he makes me, or what he does that gets to me, I would do anything for him. I will be eternally faithful and I will love him forever. He is the one. And what is really strange is, I have known it all along. I would feel that when I used to see him in the hallway, and those heartbroken feelings from the ex were the only things stopping me. Once I realized that the ex and I really were not meant to be together, I started to see much clearer. And I started to feel much more important, much more wanted, and much more special.

Evan has never ever once raised his hand to me and he never will. That was very important to me after being in a relationship that made me feel unsafe. (although we joke about the clock he threw once, like 8 years ago. It hit the wall like 5 feet from my head and made me cry.... I said "You threw a clock at me" and he said It was NO WHERE NEAR YOU! and I cried anyway..... it's an ongoing joke that I have never let go- you had to be there) and He has taken me millions of places and been incredibly patient with the things I don't know about the world. He has shared everything that is his and bought me flowers, and gifts for every little holiday. He doesn't forget an important day andHe knows EXACTLY what I like, whether it be food or clothes or anything. He is supportive and loving and I wouldn't live with anyone else. He's the guy who offers to pump your gas and drives up to the door to pick you up when it's cold or raining. From Day one he has opened every door for me, carried everything heavy, and been the gentleman that every woman deserves. I have to totally thank his dad for that, he taught his son how to treat a lady.

The best thing I can wish for any woman is that she finds an Evan to be with forever. And I don't care if that sounds sappy. Because it is the truth. My biggest fear is that something will happen to him. Because that is the one thing that I don't think I could make it through.

My Car needs USB ports

My car runs on a computer. But let me tell you, it is short one thing- USB ports.
I would KILL to run my ipod through my car. KILL! Of course I have a shuffle, and while I see that Target.com sells GM harnesses for iPod's, I have yet to determine if they make one for the shuffle. Santa Baby, I'd like my iPod in my car too- Thank You!

And how cool would it be if my car had a monitor so I could check email and sync it with my Sony Clie? I would be driving and thinking, and I would totally be like "Car, please check my schedule for Saturday December 5th" and Car would say "certainly meagan." and then respond with my schedule. I would then say "car, please email my mother and ask her to schedule a time for baking Christmas Cookies." Car would say "okay." Then 5 minutes later, Car would say "I have scheduled you for an 11am cookie bake. I have taken the liberty of entering this into your calendar and syncing it with your Clie. Would you also like me to send this through Plaxo to your outlook calendar?" and I would say "thanks car, What would I do without you!" and pat the steering wheel lovingly.

We are SOOOOO Behind on the times. My car is totally capable of all that. What are we waiting for? I mean we had it all figured out in the 70's with the Jetson's and Mork and Mindy and Star Wars, but we still don't HAVE it in real life? Whatever. It needs to be MAINSTREAM AFFORDABLE by now. Good Lord!

:) meagan, and car too. (he typed this as I dictated it, Isn't he smart! Wouldn't you buy a car that could blog for you?)

Scrapbooking, Eating at the Dutch Diner, and FINALLY getting the house clean(er)

Sunday is over and Monday has begun! I did finally get everything (or almost everything) done on Sunday. The house was clean for the majority, and there are just a few loose ends I will have to tie up today at 1pm when I return home from work to have the cable guy figure out why our internet connectivity is intermittent and slow like dial up. If I can get a page to load, I am okay, but if I try to proceed or load another page, I run into issues. I Have some stoneware to wash, a big box in the kitchen that needs to disappear, and a couple of things on the floor in the office that I can stash on a bed. Otherwise all is ready. I even found the scrapbook table and the computer desk. Mostly. The spare bedroom still has some issues - such as two boxes of clothes which need to be put back into drawers and onto hangers. But I can live with that.

Tonight is kennel cleaning night. I will have to work later since I will have to leave work for three hours to meet the cable guy. Then I would also like to go home and make supper and balance the checkbook and then I guess do some laundry. Then tomorrow night I have a stamping gathering to attend in Sheffield.

I am wondering how soon my recent "Stampin Up" Purchases will arrive. I am anxiously awaiting two of the stamp sets I ordered, one to make a card, and another to work on my wedding scrapbook- Actually to make the spa day pages to be exact. I also have the need to get some Newspaper Spray because I want to put my wedding announcement pages together as well. But first I need to spray the cutouts to make them acid safe. I placed a HUGE Order- Sponge daubers, pumpkin kalidascope ink pad (spectrum of colors), three or four stamp sets, lots of paper, and I can't wait for it all to arrive. It's time for me to be seriously working on my wedding album. I just need to take a deep breath and break it down into small sections. There are over 1000 pictures, so I am not sure how many I am actually going to scrapbook, but a 2-4 page spread for each event is sure to be enough to get the "picture" across. Ha ha. No pun intended.

Evan and I went out to eat at the Dutch Diner in Tampico on Saturday night with my parents. That is such a great place. The people are friendly and the food is great. We all had chicken dutch, except dad, who had Shrimp. The waitress was terrible.... first she got ran into by a kid and came about 6 inches from dumping a whole tray of water glasses down Evan's back. She forgot silverware, rolls, ketchup, drinks.... You name it, she forgot it. But the food was good, and we know the place, so we knew we just got a flaky waitress. Not too big of a deal.

My "scrappin group" just scheduled two new classes upcoming, a "bag book" class and a "10 tag" class. I signed up for both of them. If anyone out there in my area wants to go.... let me know and you can ride along. Classes are located at the home of Jessie Ross outside of Dover.

Number Two, Here I come.

Being a slacker never pays off. Not everyone believes this theory, But I certainly do. Maybe it is a man versus woman thing. With so much to do this weekend, I was certainly not wanting to slack. There are two ways to deal with weekend chores.

Number 1. Spread out the work over the weekend. Work casually
eachday. This usually means that you spend your entire weekend cleaning
and organizing, albeit casually.

Number 2. Be extremely lazy or just plain goof off on the first day,
then run around frantically and bust your ass on day two. Your stress
levels are elevated and things don't get done as completely as you envisioned
them, but the completion is tolerable. You are generally pissed off at
everyone around you because they A. Did not help or B. (usually in my case)
egged you on to be a slacker the previous day, and procrastinated, saying the
familiar phrase "We can do this tomorrow" and the increasingly evil phrase,
which never comes true "I will help you, don't worry."

Number 3. (I just thought of this one) This happens in a perfect world. You have little or no weekend chores. Throughout the week, you do one or two chores each evening when arriving home from work. Your husband is content to help with dinner, and instead of stacking his dirty dishes and the empty wrappers from his late night snack on the kitchen counter, he discovers where the garbage AND the dishwasher are. His shoes and yours are not strewn about every room in the house, and you both discover that empty hangers have a place, and it is not on every surface in the house. laundry is completed as it accumulates and socks and underwear are not abandoned on the floor behind the bathroom door until it won't open anymore. You open the mail every day and either address the bills and papers immediately or throw them away. There are no stacks of catalogs and junk mail and bills and things to deal with "later" Your weekends are filled with frolicking trips to places like Bishop Hill and Starved Rock State Park. You go out for dinner and you take nice scenic car rides. You scrapbook and bake and smile your pearly white smile with relaxation. You take trips to a "cabin" and go see movies.

When I start the situation, I plan on number 1. But almost NEVER do I complete number one instead I am egged on to do number two, which leaves me cranky, feeling like my weekend was a complete failure, and everything I accomplished was without any assistance from anyone else. And longing for the non-existent weekend number 3.

P.S. If you are able to attain weekend number 3, I would like to propose that I pay you to come to my home and help me to attain it. Please respond A.S.A.P.

Soup and Cinnamon Rolls

I have totally made 5 giant cinnamon rolls this morning with sweet sticky icing, and proceeded to concoct soup from a harvest soup mix with rice, lentils, split peas, stewed tomatoes, ground beef, and boullion. It is simmering. It smells heavenly. If it tastes as great as it smells, I will have to publish the website of the manufacturer.

I love being organized. Unfortunately, my posessions love to be unorganized

The asian beetles have begun their infiltration. My mom would snarl at me if she read this post, her entire house has been surrounded for months. You can't open the door without letting 15 thousand more inside to join those creeping in through cracks between the walls and ceilings. She vacuums up thousands each day. Now I, am very lucky. They sit around outside but rarely get inside, except in the attic. Now today, I saw one sitting on the ledge under the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I just looked at him and walked away. Whatever. Between the dust and lack of organization here, what's one asian beetle?

This weekend I have a goal. Organization. I love being organized. Unfortunately, my posessions love to be unorganized. It's a constant battle. I am afraid to sleep because I know they will cause havoc overnight. Books and papers climb into toppling stacks, clothing slips off the hangers and tangles into an orgy of mis-matched colors and fabrics. Slippers split up and relocate themselves under seperate beds in seperate rooms. It's a nightmare. All while I peacefully sleep.

I still have not figured how the dirty dishes will leap clear out of the dishwasher and onto the counters in precarious piles but the clean dishes are content to sit in the dishwasher for DAYS and have no drive which which to propel themselves in the cupboards in neat stacks. At least once every two weeks, I have a sit down talk with my posessions. I explain that my cleaning people will be here on Monday and I PLEAD with them to stay where I put them and resist the temptation to cause mayhem before then. I bribe them by promising them of the dusting and polishing they will get on Monday and explain that if they don't stay where I put them, there will be NO CHANCE of them getting the love and affection they deserve.


So today, Saturday, I woke up like clockwork at 7:30am. Is this what is it like to get old? Ugh. I unloaded the dishwasher, I reloaded the dishwasher, I changed loads of laundry, I freshly made the spare bed in the "baby room" (see photo at left), I just recently got new soft lime/apple green sheets and a fleecy blanket to match, and they go perfectly with the green paint and the green roman shades. I put the new "coasters" under the wheels of the bed frame to protect the floor and then I made up the bed. All I wanted to do was lie down on it. But Instead, I decided to blog. Next trick to tackle- the OFFICE. There is only approximately one square inch of desk that is visible (see photo below right.) I see a scanner that needs installed, sitting about halfway up a stack of books and papers and magazines to file in folders or in the out box (trash can) and I also see a vent cover and some misc screws (remodeling is grand) and what looks to be a new firewire cable to connect the Mini DV camcorder to the computer.

I have had the camcorder for about two or three years and me, the IT person, has yet to successfully get the computer to recognize it. Thumbs down to Panasonic, for charging me $17 for a "computer connectivity kit" and then sending me a SERIAL CABLE (for god's sake) and GET THIS!!!! a Floppy Disk! Yes! 3.5 floppy with my software. WTF? Advanced technology? I think not~ How about a USB or Firewire cable and a CD! Good Grief Charlie Brown!

So, as I attack posessions that are unruly and have a mind of their own. Please send me all the good karma you can muster. I am going to need it!

P.S. Yesterday's Top Secret Mission- Accomplished. Look for the revealing around December 26th. I will try to keep my evil laugh in check until then.

P.P.S. Remodeling currently has me at wit's end. It is INCREDIBLY annoying to have the main rooms of your house empty and dirty, and to have no furniture to eat at or sit on. The only place to sit is in the office, at my vanity table, or on one of the two beds. We have more furniture outside! This is annoying. I can't wait for this to be over. Then we must stand on the street corner and beg for money for our dining room table. See above- the photo of what the dining room/living room look like today, and below, photos of what is has been looking like in the past few weeks.
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Top Secret Project Launches Today!

It's so much fun to have a secret! Evan and I have a top secret project that we execute today! I can't tell what it IS here becuase it is meant to be a surprise for bunches of people. He he he. And I don't want them to decipher it. It is so hard not to blog about it, because I am dying to put it in as an Adventure in Everyday Life.... however I am totally not going to spill the beans!

It all starts at 11am. We have done preparation work this week, and essentially since the beginning Of October. he he he. I want to laugh my evil secretive laugh and press my fingertips together menacingly. Although the project is in no way menacing. It's just the fun of the secret.

Today there is a cool "shopping day" (exact name which I may not reveal, lest it give away my place of employment, and end up like the Queen of the Sky) at my "undisclosed place of work" and I purchased 4 small "undisclosed items" which I will use to decorate for an "undisclosed holiday" which is dear to the hearts of those small and tall.

I slept really well last night, once again, only awaking around 4am to get a drink and make a bathroom stop.

Camera Tossing. For Real

Have you ever heard of camera tossing? Obviously I have not, and today, I learned something totally new.

You toss your camera into the air, often at night in front of various light sources (think Las Vegas Neons or Carnival Lights) in the pursuit of art- smeared and moving, blurred and black.... Check this out....

http://cameratoss.blogspot.com

Fellow Bloggers- What's up with the Bullets?

Someone PLEASE Tell me why Bullets refuse to work in Blogger? They look great, until you post. What's the point of having them if they don't work???

Just really peeved about it. I love bullets and numbering. It's an organizational orgasm.

Finally a Good Night's Sleep!

Sleep. Finally. I am really really curious as to which if the following factors caused me to sleep like a baby from 11pm until 5am, and then to go right back to sleep until just before 7am.

• A toasty Tuscany Turkey Sandwich from Monical's Pizza for supper
• A shopping trip that made me all sleepy and possessionally fulfilled
• The adjustment at the Chiropracter where she had to crack each place twice because I was all tense and messed up.
• The two glasses of white wine I drank by the fire at the Pheonix Inn
• Sheer Mental and Physical Exhaustion

Likely a combination of the 5, wouldn't you say?

So today the dogs go to the groomers and I go to work. Last night I did about 100 thousand things, Evan washed dog beds at the laundromat, I went to the Chiropracter, to Monicals to supper with Pete and Evan, then to Peru on a top secret mission which also yielded a new pair of VS undies for my sister, a cute pink "Naughty or Nice" Drawstring bag for me, three pair of earrings, jeans and shirt for Evan, a new Orange Columbia sweatshirt for me, a blanket for the twin bed in the baby room, and a wine cabinet for the dining room, and also a set of coasters to set the twin bed legs on to protect the hardwood floors. Then I went to the laundromat to check the dog beds, to John and Amy's to rouse the husband back to responsibility, and to the Pheonix for wine by the bonfire. Then home, unload the car, put on the pajamas, let the dogs out, and fall fast asleep. So all of these things occurred between 5pm and 11pm. Typical Night of mine. Who was that who said fat people are lazy? Whatever. I guess I am chunky because all of that involved food and wine. And because as much as I move about, I despise structured excercise and LOVE food. See previous post. And Shopping must not qualify as excercise?

Should Fat People Make as much $$ as Skinny People?

Oh for God's sakes. Last night on the radio I hear them talking about the "new controvery." Should overweight people get paid as much as skinny people? It frustrates me that anyone thinks that weight is always a direct result of your level of laziness. Do they not think about metabolism, medical conditions, and people who just plain LIKE FOOD? My answer to this, in the shortest, most polite way possible, is that I know some awfully lazy skinny peopple. Uneducated, unmotivated people who wouldn't lift their finger to help ANYONE. I hardly believe that anyone would say that just because you are skinnier than me, your brain is working harder. I have met some dumb skinny people, just like I have met some dumb fat people. This is the most retarded controversy I have ever heard. Wages should be based on skill and responsibity and reliability. Not weight, sex, or beauty. What a joke.

In other related news, which I also found interesting:

LOS ANGELES -- Tyra Banks has gone undercover as a 350-pound woman. Banks wore the fat suit to experience what it's like to be obese.

"It seemed like the last form of open discrimination that's OK, and I decided to put on a 350-pound suit myself and live that life for a day and see what happens," the
31-year-old former supermodel told AP Radio in a recent interview. "And it was
one of the most heartbreaking days of my life."

Banks said she was shocked at the reaction.

"I started walking down the street and within 10 seconds, a trio of people looked at me, snickered, looked me right in my eye and started pointing and laughing in my face," the talk-show host said. "And I had no idea it was that blatant."

The segment will air Monday on "The Tyra Banks Show."

Dowry, waking up at 3:30am, and the Aryan Nation on TV.

Wednesday. Once again, awoken at 3:30am by husband. But fortunately he saved the day. When I could not get back to sleep, he rubbed my back, which didn't work, and then he suggested I move into the spare room, where the mattress is newer and more comfy, and the room is darker and more quiet. I followed his suggestion and I fell right to sleep and slept like a rock till 7am. Thank God.

Last night I thoroughly Enjoyed the Episode of Earl, especially the ketchup packets squeezed into the bottle and then put on top of the spaghetti like spaghetti sauce. Whoa. And of course the Balboa Lawn Mowers Prettiest Pretty Princess Pageant... complete with knife throwing mother-daughter performances.

Then I watched an unbelievable episode of Law and Order SVU, wow! That one certainly got you thinking. I have got to say that that Infiltrated FBI Agent turned white supremacist was a FABULOUS actress (Marcia Gay Harden who I recognized towards the end as Nancy in Mona Lisa Smile- which was a complete flipside character!), she certainly had me convinced. I hated her through and through. You can read thoroughly about the episode HERE on the NBC website. It also guest starred Cody Kasch (who is Zach Young on desperate housewives.) What an episode! The people on there were reprehensible! Racial slurs and hatred. It just made you angry hearing it.

Then of course I was so tired! I had work, then Evan and I grabbed Soup at Country Kitchen, then I had a Princeton Computer User Group meeting, and then I went home and fed the dogs and took a bubble bath and read another section of the Bitch in the House.

I found the portion I was reading very interesting. And incredibly relevent.

On the way to Macomb on Saturday, Evan and I got into a debate about a dowry. We had friends who got married recently who had a hard time believing that we had to take out a small load to cover wedding expenses, and honeymoon/vacation expenses. She incredulously asked me "didn't your parents help?" to which I replied "yes, they did, but we still had expenses that were our responsibility, and we weren't able to pay for all of them." So Evan and I were discussing how people always assume that parents pay for everything.

Then he mentioned how the tradition was that the Bride's parents pay for everything. I told him that was old fashioned and unrealistic. I explained that when the bride's parents paid for everything, it was because they were paying (essentially) the groom to take her off their hands, like passing her off onto someone else who would take care of her and pay for her for the rest of her life. I told him that this is no longer necessary now that most women work full time, and make similar and sometimes even more wages than the husband. Plus these are not arranged marraiges. Evan didn't marry me because my parents threw in 3 goats, a cow, and 5 chickens, you know? Then Evan breaks out with the bride's parents pay for it out of RESPECT for the groom and his family, and that they throw a party in accordance with the way they want their daughter to be treated the rest of her life. And of course, all of this is REALLY beginning to piss me off, so instead of arguing as I am regularly inclined to do, I just plain ignore it and shut my mouth, looking out the car window to keep from freaking out over an argument about DOWRY.

Well, it was incredibly interesting because in the book, one of the women discusses the silliness of a dowry, and how outdated the thought is that you have to pay the groom off to take the bride off her parent's hands, etc etc. Everything I said was right there in print. I had to resist the temptation to point that out to Evan to prove to him that the idea is old fashioned and that my parents did not have to PAY for our wedding and honeymoon and reception.

It's Gone. I've Completely Lost it.

How to tell you've lost your mind? Well, Last night I picked up my cell phone to call Evan. And Anya answered. I dialed Anya's cell phone instead of Evan's. What a nightmare. Then I at least got to find out that Anya is having a girl (her sonogram visit was yesterday.)

Then today, trying to call my own house, my DAD answers, and turns out I called my OLD house (as in 5 years ago old) and My dad said "You're getting old" and I said "You and me both" and he said "Not me, I'm not old."

Why is my brain betraying me?

Then I got a reminder on my work calendar today that we had a computer user group meeting tonight, which I totally forgot and did not prepare for. Which means I had an 8 page newsletter to do that I hadn't even started- AGAIN!

The bastard on the Couch is about to meet the Bitch in the House.

There are so many variations of blogging. There are moments when I have so much to say at one time that I can't hardly stand it and I type it out so fast and the title gets so goofy and unrelated.... I love those moments. And then there are the times, like today, when I can't even begin to think of something that I would like to blog about, and it ends up being a basic description of what I have done or am doing. It's silly really. I am not a person that lacks words, but sometimes I lack topics.

I recently upgraded to Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional, from Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and let me tell you, I love the added functionality. Especially with fill in forms. And the Stamps (Sign here, etc.) are great!

So today at my "undisclosed place of employment" I cleaned off my desk. For some reason I always accumulate a pile of miscellaneous papers and books in the upper righthand corner of my desk. I think it's because every time I eat or drink or work on a project, I need to clear a space so things just keep getting shoved and stacked into that corner. Silly, I know.

So once my desk was clean I felt much better today. I have changed my hours so that I go to work 1.5 hours earlier each day and therefore leave 1.5 hours earlier. It hasn't been too bad. I have been forcing myself to bed early. Sunday night I went to bed at 11pm so that I could be awake at 7am. And Evan woke me up at 3:30am. So last night after work, and cleaning dog kennels, eating supper, and taking a milk bath, I started to read and fell asleep at 7:20pm. Then I woke up at 9pm, 12:30am, 2:56am, 4:30am, and 6:58am.... before the alarm went off at 7am. Ick. Nothing like a solid night's sleep, huh? Whatever. But I have made it by 8:15 both days, which isn't too bad. Especially considering I usually worked at 9:30.

So I am still reading the book The Bitch in the House (described in detail in this post) and I really love it. I have seen the new book "the bastard on the couch" which is a spinoff... and I assume that I may read that one too. I dunno. It is edited by the husband of Cathy Hanauer, who edited The Bitch in the House. It is supposedly a story about the men's side of the exact same situation.... and I find it interesting that it discusses "Why men lie and always will." and that makes me angry, considering how much I appreciate honesty and despise that men find it "ok" to lie just because they can. (are you reading this husband of mine? Doubtful. He never ever reads my blog.) How rude. That in itself makes me want nothing to do with the book.

Do they have any idea that their lying is what MAKES them untrustable, and makes us think of them as the bastard on the couch. Ugh.

I guess the only real reason I want to boycott this book today is because Evan (evil husband of mine) spent his night away from home (are you reading this John? I am blaming you! How would Amy feel if you didn't come home till 3am all the time? EXACTLY. That is why you are at home and Evan comes to you.... now that doesn't hardly seem fair, does it?) and he came back at god only knows what time, and slept in the spare bedroom because he (smartly) didn't want to wake me up again. And also that he hasn't taken the garbages out in exactly 9 days and they are all overflowing all over the floor, and he didn't put together the office chair that he has been promising to do since SUNDAY and it is now TUESDAY and there is laundry everywhere, which he also isn't helping with.... and then he puts the DIRTY dishes on TOP of the clean dishes which are lying on a towel drying in the kitchen. ARGH! So today he is the bastard on the couch. And he got a honey-do list this morning and if it isn't done I will be going Bitch in the House on him tonight. If he were a really smart hsuband, he could read my blog and heed the warnings, but since he likely doesn't even know it exists, through his fog of dungeons and dragons and playstation games and internet useage.... I am safe to rant all I want here.

But ya'll know I'd do it anyway. That's my nature. Just like men lie "because they can."