Saw Speed Racer on Friday. I LOVED IT! LOVED IT LOVED IT LOOOOOOOVED IT!!!! It was so fun and vibrant and seizure inducing. It's a good movie for families there's no adult humor in it very very little swearing, it's just as fun and corny and over the top as the anime.

I got to the theater directly after Zach's visitation at the funeral home. It was emotional and unnerving and I definitely needed a pick-me-up afterward. Since it was only just about 4PM on a Friday the theater was empty save for a few parents with their younger children.

I love going to the movies with kids in the audience. Especially something like this. Because you KNOW their parents were faithful fans of Speed and the Mach 5. Beside me was a father and his little boy. As the movie began you could hear the little boy giggle at young Speed pretending to be a famous racer. When Rex made his appearance he asked "Is that Speed Racer" (actually it sounded more like "Is that Speed Wacer?" OMG CUTE!) to which his father replied "No that's his brother Rex" "Oooh that's Wex" And went back to watching the movie. During the races you could hear the kids in the audience all gasping in awe "That's so cool!" Heck I was gasping in awe "That's so cool!"

Of course the kid favorites were Spritle and Chim-Chim. Yes. Spritle was annoying. He was just as he was in the anime, stowing away in Speed's trunk and getting into trouble. But hey you'll have that.

And the Races... OMG DON'T GET ME STARTED! Despite they were 100% CGI they were just a sensory overload to watch. The cars actually fought each other on tracks that looked more like roller coasters than they did race tracks. The cars and their racers were all flamboyant, thematically dressed and as colorful as a the Jelly Belly wall in the candy store.

Though the plot was predictable it was fun. We all know Speed's gonna win the big race and the bad guys are going to be brought to justice. And that's what I loved about it. No stupid loss with a lesson attached to it. No melancholy "make you think" ending. Just Speed, the finish line and the simple lesson on the importance of family and doing what you love for yourself, not money, fame or victory.

The actor who played Taejo Kogokhan is Korean pop singer Rain. Rain was featured recently on the Colbert Report and beat Steven in a round of DDR. Which resulted in Steven shouting out angrily into the night sky "RAAAAAAAAAAAAIN" ....Took all I had not to do the same when Taejo was introduced.

Anyway... Speed Racer is childish, family friendly and over the top in every way. I'm going back for round two very soon... hopefully at the IMAX.

As I drove back to Greenwood yesterday evening after spending the afternoon with my family for Mothers' Day I couldn't help but realize how great my mom really is.

I got home and proceeded to cry to Mom about an argument I was involved in the previous night I then haphazardly gave her her gift and continued to dump on her just how horrible my week had been.

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!! *sulk brood life's not fair boo hoo bitch moan cry*

She suggested we go for a walk and she offered her advice on my argument and told me not to worry. After a quick visit with my grandma she took me to the Verizon store, since my phone had up and died) and offered to buy me a new Voyager phone. (like $260 phone AFTER my credits and rebate!!!) I told her no and went with a cheaper model it was only $60 after everything was said and done. She insisted on paying for it since she bought Kim and Kathy each phones last year. (Even though she offered to buy the phone for me I feel uncomfortable with my mom buying me luxuries like a cell phone. Once I get my rebate in I'm going to give it to her.)

We went home and dad had grilled some salmon and veggies. We had dinner and around 6:30 I headed out. As if buying me a phone wasn't enough she gave me $30 for gas. I know better than to refuse my mom on these things and just said "You know you don't have to do that, but thanks"

She told me she always likes to help "us kids" out. So I just took the money and headed out.

My mom never had a glamorous life. She was born mostly deaf, got married straight out of high school and spent most of her life there after staying home raising me and my sisters while other women were working mothers. I know she doesn't think much of herself and she kinda wishes she had done more with her life, but to me and my sisters having her waiting for us after school or being able to take us to the park or the pool during the summer really meant a lot. Mom made our house THE place to be when we were kids. She always had good snacks and never was stingy with them (The mother of one of my friends made us bring our own snacks to her house if ever we went over). She always let us play with water guns if the weather was nice, she hauled van loads of kids (most of which weren't even her own) to the park, the pool, sledding hills or wherever the days' activities took place. We had sleep overs almost every Friday and she'd play board games with us. I have a very distinct memory of her, my friends and sisters all playing a board game and me just laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. I remember baking brownies with mom and my sisters thinking that cracking the eggs into the batter was the coolest thing ever, coming in from sledding on a snow day and she'd be making us hot chocolate... I mean dude, my childhood rocked because she stayed home instead of worked!

Mom was always more of my friend than my mom. And not like the whole Oh-I-don't-want-to-act-my age-so-I'll-act-like-my-daughter type of friend, but more like she'd always listen to me and we would have long conversations about whatever. Hell she'd even let me read my pathetic short stories to her.

So in short as daughter, I'm mediocre at best. But my mom rocks. Seriously.

Waylon the Monkey is a plush monkey with long velcro hands and feet that has been in my care for the past 6 years.

Initially he was considered the love child of Zach and our friend Steph. How a stuffed monkey can be a love child I'll never know... and frankly I don't want to know. All I know is one day during my junior year at IU I returned from class to see Waylon hanging on my apartment door knob along with a Storm Trooper Pez dispenser. On the concrete in front of the door, in silly string was written "We love you Angry"

It was obviously a corny prank/friendly gesture from my boys Levi, Zach and Rory.

Since then Waylon has had a comfy home hanging from my studio lamp. And currently, around my neck.

I think I'm going to take him to Zach's viewing tomorrow because clearly he's a reminder of happier times. I also decided I'm not wearing dark colors. I've decided I'm not gonna mourn anyone when they die. I'm gonna celebrate and be happy that they lived and I got to live with them.

Aside from Waylon I have many lovely memories of Zach. One night he took me on an impromptu outing to the IU Auditorium to see a show and we had seats in like the 5th row. It was awesome! And all the times we all went out to Lake Griffey and shot bottle rockets--fun tip: Bottle rockets + empty wrapping paper tube = very fun make shift rocket launcher! And there was the one time I almost shot him in the face with a bottle rocket launched out of milk jug during a prank. Oh! And the one time we were playing with bottle rockets at Levi's and we set like 20 off at once and he almost got shot... y'know...We really shouldn't play with bottle rockets like that... we're just reckless.. hell not even reckless... we're just stupid LOL.

Other non bottle rocket related memories include the time he and I went to the 4th street art fair. That was fun and let's not exclude the countless times we all just hung out in Levi's basement and played video games and watched movies. And my first trip to the drive in with him and the gang to see Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo.

Ah, those were the days.

I'm doing much better than I expected with this. And that's good. I figure as long as I have Waylon I'll always have a little bit of Zach.

Mom and Dad called (and as I speculated it was just as I was getting ready to do laundry). Aaaanyway, it seems my Grandma D put her dog, Dakota, down this week.

I remember when she got Dakota. He's a black daschaund and has been in the family since I was like 10 or something. He's also been prone to seizures all his life. My sisters and I can't help but feel sorry for him when we see him... He was beat up by my poorly disciplined cousin Richard when was younger, yelled at constantly by my ever cranky Grandpa and fed nothing but table scraps by my Grandma who just thought she was giving the pup a treat.

He was a good dog and just wanted some attention. I recall whenever my sisters and I would visit on Sundays we'd remember to give him an extra pat on the head or let him sit with us on the sofa. If we were outside we'd play soccer with him. Despite being a small dog he could knock a soccer ball around quite well. It was funny.

Poor pup. I remember Grandma talking about it at Little Ben's Baptism a couple weeks ago and the conversation went like this.


Me: Why, is he sick?
Grandma: No, he's just old and his seizures are too much for me to take care of.
Me: You know, just keep that in mind when you get too old and too much for any of us to take care of.
Grandma: That's fine, do whatever you want, just don't put me in a home!
Me: Can I get that in writing?

And then she trailed off and said "Oh I don't know we'll see." ...in regards to putting Dakota down... not putting her statement in writing so I could exercise my twisted sense of irony somewhere down the line...even though turn about is fair play.

I have learned from personal experience that the term "We'll see" should be taken as a warning flag and translated as "Probably not gonna end in your favor but I'm just saying this to shut you up for the moment and then take the conversation in another direction." And by golly she did! She noticed me taking some cold medicine and asked what I was doing and then proceeded to tell me I needed to eat another sandwich because I'm too thin and then attempted to get me another sandwich until my cousin's baby toddled over and distracted her with his way-too-chubby-to-be-1-year-old cuteness. ...She then proceeded to feed him deviled eggs and green beans stating as she crammed a bean into his mouth "Hey Ange, you think he can eat green beans yet?"

Me: Well considering you just force fed him one I guess we're gonna find out.


ANYWAY! I digress.

The moral of the story is this. Grandma put her dog down. And that kinda sucks. ....That's...that's a crappy moral... actually it's not really even a moral at all. The only way this story could have a moral is if it ended like 20 years later with all us kids putting Grandma down because she got too old... in which case I guess the moral would be something like Don't kill things just because they're useless... it will get you in the end. And it STILL isn't a good moral!

So moral-less and out of things to write about I'll end with this:

I love my Grandma D... she's a good lady-- she has to be to put up with my pedestrian hitting Grandpa. She'll feed you death if you're not careful and is always up for a trip to McDonald's for a coffee or an ice cream. But putting down the dog was not cool. Her house won't be the same without him.

I love http://www.icanhascheezburger.com but has anyone ever taken the time to read the comments on the photos? Seriously, this is a foreign language. Or just grammar and spelling so poor the mere sight of it can cause English teachers to spontaneously combust.

KATHY DON'T LOOK!!!!!

So tomorrow is Comcast Cares Day and as I mentioned I will be volunteering at the local Boys n Girl's club to mentor kids and teach Tae Kwon Do for a couple hours.

For this event I wanted to do a breaking demonstration at the end of the class just because I think the kids will get a kick out of it. I consulted Jared, our Sales Manager and the guy in charge of this and he was very excited about it. Well I went all over town looking for wood and I was surprised to find that getting boards cut to my specs is much more expensive than back in the day. Most places wanted $2 a cut and for a 1x12x9 board... well that's just pricey! *old woman moment in 3...2...1* Back in my day boards were 40 cents a cut! And we had to cut em ourselves! In the SNOW! Barefoot! Uphill both ways!

So I decided to skip the breaking demo.

Well, I got into work today and Jared approached me and asked me if I was still breaking and when I told him no he got like really disappointed. "What!? No!? Why!? It'll be awesome! You have to! I just think it'll be so cool!"

I told him that I didn't want to spend the money on the lumber and it wasn't a big deal to me. He looked at me kind of puzzled and asked "how much are boards." I told him and I told him how many I needed. Then he said "You should have told me you needed money! The company gave me a budget for this thing!" And he handed me some cash and told me to go right then (middle of the work day) to the lumber yard and get my boards! How freakin awesome is that!?

So I went down the road to Black's Lumber and got a dozen boards, came back and practiced on a few. I am so happy to know that a 4 board elbow strike is still a piece of cake for me. I saved enough boards for a 4 board elbow strike and then 2 single board kicks. I think 3 different techniques will work out.

Wow I'm so excited about this now! Everyone was talking about it today how I'm going to be teaching TKD and they were all so impressed. Not many of them knew I was a martial artist. Everyone is so excited to see me tomorrow... it gives me so much confidence.

Tomorrow should be great fun.

It's been a busy past few days now that I look back at it all.

Thursday at work I was convinced to volunteer two hours of my time for Comcast Cares Employee Volunteer Day. I don't really want to do this. I have better things to do... okay not really but I just don't wanna do this. And some how one of my supervisors found out I used to be a Tae Kwon Do instructor and arranged for me to teach kids TKD for 2 hours as part of the Mentoring portion of Comcast Cares Day.

So in 6 days I will be spending my morning at the boys and girls club teaching TKD... I dunno. I haven't taught in like 6 years and as I understand it, it's gonna be a big crowd. Well whatever happens happens. It's a good cause I know and it's only two hours of my time so I'll stop complaining about it and get to work brushing up on my stuff. It's gonna be fun anyway. I love TKD and I love teaching it, I'm just nervous.

Friday I spent with Ben at his place. It was an uneventful night but very nice and much needed.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Chris. We had a spur of the moment investigation as depicted in http://btownghostgirl.livejournal.com/ (my other LJ for my ghosty stuffs)

It went well and we had a good time. And the best part was the lady had this 3 month old runt golden retriever pup named Daisy. Being the runt she was only like 10 inches long nose to the tip of her tail and she was so adorable she could make your head explode.

Today I spent coloring some of the characters for Ben's story. I am pleased with the way they turned out. I might post them later. We'll see.

In other news... um well, there is no other news. I just hope this week goes fast and the weekend gets here soon.

My cat Ed has some serious dandruff... any suggestions? Anyone?

This morning at 5:40-ish I experienced my first ever earthquake.

When I awoke to my bed shaking uncontrollably my thought process went as follows:

1) TORNADO!!! OMG OMG GET TO THE STORM CELLAR... wait... it's not even raining out.... oooookay...scratch that...

2) Massive cat fight at the foot of my bed because whenever something strange happens around the apartment 99% of the time I can just blame it on the cats. *checks the cats* They are oddly calm... moving on.

3) It's my fan shaking the bed! Never mind that my fan is pretty small and could barely cause my nightstand to vibrate let alone cause my entire bed to tremor. God only knows where THAT skewed notion came from... I blame the cough syrup I took before bed.

4) Oh, I get it. I'm still dreaming. Come on Pegasus, I have to get the powdered sugar out of grandma's washer. (ACTUAL DREAM) Wait a minute, this isn't a Pegasus... this is my pillow... aaaand the bed is still shaking...


I remember the feeling the tremor for at least a good 15-20 seconds or so before it stopped.

Once things calmed down I just didn't think anything more of it and went back to bed. It never even crossed my mind that it might have been an earthquake. Serioiusly. I was just like "Hmm. weird. Whatever *passes back out*" I figured it couldn't be the apocalypse because obviously (though I am sure some people out there did...) the world was still outside my window sans bloody moon, plague and horsemen. If it WAS supposed to be the apocalypse I just have this to say... try harder God.

It wasn't till I got to work and one of the ladies said "Did you feel that earthquake?" that I realized it was a real earthquake.

According to the Herald Times Online it was a 5.4 on the Rictor scale meaning that it was strong enough to be felt and picked up by seismographs but not strong enough to cause any real damage. There was also an aftershock later in the morning, I wanna say like 11ish maybe?

Oh dude... I totally have a horrible cold.

And it's not the runny nose and sore throat the bugs me... it's the freakin sinus pressure. Seriously it feels like my face is about to explode.

Today at work we filmed a commercial. How much warning did we get? An e-mail sent like 3 hours prior saying "Oh yeah, we're filming a commercial today. kthxbai."

It was a pretty simple set up the cameras rolled and filmed our DVP who was out on the office floor while in the background business went as normal. And for me and my friends that means we were being kinda goofy. Particularly when I forgot we were rolling and did my impression of the televangelist that was on the TV nearby "performing miracles."

But the thing I am looking forward to most is during the playback... My desk was right in the line of the camera and a few days back I replaced my traditional name tag on my cube wall with one that reads "Meat Tuxedo" in reference to an inside joke between my buddy Andrew and I. And beside that is a sign I made for our community candy box that reads "EAT MOAR CANDIEZ!!!!"

But I don't even know if this will show up in the final cut... it depends on how close up they filmed our DVP.

Actually the thing that I am most amazed by is the fact they filmed right next to one of our most argumentative reps... at least 3 or 4 times a day I over hear him saying something like "I'm not calling you stupid ma'am. I'm just saying this is a simple issue and you're making it more complicated than it needs to be." Now THAT would have been hilarious to catch on tape.

In other news I had this crazy dream last night that my sister Kathy got like 7 tattoos on her back.

Other than that... that's all I got.

O hai. Sinz it are a mundays and iz no liek mundays i desided to shares sum LOL cats. They maded me laff.



see more crazy cat pics



see more crazy cat pics


And yes... I did write that first part in LOL speak... May all my past English teachers forgive me and Ceiling Cat have mercy on my soul.

A long time ago I wrote a funny little short story called "The Misadventures of Weirdo Baggins (the unusually tall Hobbit) and Angie the Pink and Glittery"

It was sparked by a strange comment made by Laura one spring evening something like 6 years ago. We were talking about what races we'd like to be if we lived in Middle Earth (yeah we're nerds. You know this) and she said she'd be a Hobbit. Being as how she was taller than I, I pointed out that she would have to shrink at least 2 feet. To which she responded "No I'd just be unusually tall." Then out of the blue I said "I could call you Weirdo Baggins: The Unusually Tall Hobbit!"

Then since I decided it'd be pretty sweet to be a Wizard I was dubbed Angie the Pink and Glittery because my wardrobe for whatever reason was like 90% pink at that time and I had a thing for glittery nail polish. Yeah... I know... DOOOORK.

Anyway from that one random set of comments I developed a small story. That small story grew and before I knew it I had 30 or so pages of sheer oddness.

Angie and Weirdo had become a pair of wandering oddities flitting about Middle Earth inadvertently causing trouble wherever they went. Weirdo was a 5 and a half foot tall hobbit with a taste for beer and liked to rap and dance on tables when she got drunk (which was often) and Angie was a wizard who just couldn't seem to get her fireworks quite right and spent a lot of her time keeping Weirdo in line.

Anyway after I had it all typed I printed it and let it be. Well 6 years and 2 new computers later I thought the story was all but lost... and technically it was as I had forgotten it had existed. That is until tonight when I happened upon it in an old binder of old short stories dating back as far as 6th grade! Some are written in pencil and are so faded I can barely read them!

Reading thru it brought back so many memories... I remember Laura and I sitting in the Playroom at home as she read it laughing at the sheer randomness of it. I remember the T-shirt I made for her that said Weirdo on the front and Baggins on the back. She wore it a couple of times that I recall. We had so much fun with those characters! I even came across an old drawing I did for the cover of said story. Oh wow... what fun it was...

What fun it was.

This morning at 3AM I was awakened by the oh so obnoxious shriek of the car alarm of one of my neighbors. I mean it was like a bomb went off. The car started screaming, the cats, who were sleeping at my feet, were scared awake and they stampeded me as I lay utterly perplexed at what was going on.

And you know, when a car alarm starts going off 9 times out of 10 the owner of the car comes out and shuts the blasted thing up promptly. NOT SO in this case. That car alarm sounded for a solid 20 minutes before it finally went off... at which point I was wide awake so pfffft there goes my wonderful night's sleep!

However as I sat angry on the sofa wanting to punch whoever owned that car in the balls or face or whatever they had that was more painful I decided that it was odd for an alarm to just "go off" at 3AM... so I went out and checked my vehicle... because to hell with everybody else, I'm not driving their cars.

Everything seemed fine... so who knows. I hope it doesn't happen again though.

But consequently, I also only got like 3 hours of sleep last night... Sooooo I'm gonna call it a night early here.

So I finally got up the nerve to ask Tito if he left me that art book at my door back in december...it was NOT him! I started asking him about it and he was all "What the heck are you talking about?"

Hmmm, the mystery continues...

But seriously... if you gave me that book please let me know so I can properly thank you and by properly thank I mean buy you a drink or dinner or something.

So back at the end of february I went online to order my new license plate. Well 1 month (and 5 days till my plate expires) later it still has not arrived. I have my renewal confirmation saved and will likely be printing it to keep in my car in the event march 31 arrives and my plate still isn't here.

2 days ago I also emailed the BMV asking what the deal was and have heard nothing from them. My bank account has been charged for the plate, I double checked my address and everything is correct with the mailing address. Tomorrow if I haven't heard anything by lunch time I'm going to call them and ask what's up.

In the meantime I am exceptionally tired today. BUT as a plus we got paid for our un-used sick days from last year and my left over time got me an extra $237!!!!! That is going STRAIGHT into the savings account! Well I might take some of it to buy some new throw pillows for the sofa or a nice wall hanging for the living room.

Anyway, doesn't seem as though anyone is in the mood to talk tonight... so I'll just be off.

Stupid BMV

I decided to make a separate journal for all my stuff with BAGHs. You can find it here http://btownghostgirl.livejournal.com/

I'm going on my first investigation tomorrow!!!!

We're all meeting up and going out to Stepp Cemetery to try and get some day time EVP's. Chris said the last time they went out it was during the day and they got three really clear EVP's and they want to try for some more.

Being this is my first investigation I am glad it's during the daylight hours. That and Stepp Cemetery, though I have never been, has actually haunted my nightmares. Maybe once I go out there it won't seem as mysterious and scary anymore.

I'm a Ghost Hunter!

There is nothing better than waking up at 10AM, having a coffee and knowing that you have absolutely no place to be.

I love the weekend.

However Chris from the BAGHs hasn't gotten back to me on whether or not we're meeting today. If I've not gotten an e-mail by this afternoon I'm gonna call him and check.