A Whiter Shade of Pale

Be thankful, I have a few things to gripe about. Not a complete gripe session though, thankfully.

#1. My neighbors are loud. I live in an apartment on the 2nd floor of one side of a duplex. I have neighbors below me and neighbors next to me. Intermittently they are loud, thankfully it isn't a constant loud. Sometimes I hear loud bass coming from downstairs or next door. Sometimes I hear doors closing, sometimes I hear people next door trampling upstairs sounding like the buffalo stampede from Dances With Wolves. Ugh, it wasn't this loud when I visited. Hopefully it'll get better. I guess my last place just spoiled me. Plus, I don't want to move again lol. At least the snow is starting to melt so I can get my parking spot back.

#2. "The Crazies" was such a dumb movie. At least parts of it were laughably dumb. Some parts were just dumb dumb. At least thanks to my rewards card, I got a free movie ticket out of it.

#3. Politicians, y'all are just plum crazy and need to get busy actually doing something productive, or get the heck out. DC, good grief, y'all are about as productive and well behaved as a room full of sick toddlers who skipped nap time. Can't you get along and get anything done? Here's a hint, blaming the other side for the lack of progress isn't helping either.

#4. Montgomery, AL. I like Bob Riley, I voted for Bob Riley. But this vendetta against the bingo halls & casinos is getting out of hand & ridiculous. If Troy King doesn't even have your back, move on. If the state were to take over, they could regulate them, tax them, MAKE MONEY OFF OF THEM! Preventing them from operating won't prevent people from going. Also, Sunday liquor sales is coming around again. I'm a Southern Baptist, born and raised. I'm a SB because of their views on the Bible, the local church autonomy, the emphasis on missions. But, as it took me a while to learn, not everyone is Baptist and not everyone thinks the same way we do. Many other CHRISTIAN denominations have no problem with drinking alcohol. Let me tell ya, that kinda shocked me. I don't see why people can't just drink a Coke everyday, apparently many other denominations don't think you'll go to Hell for having wine on a Sunday. Once again, might as well make some money off the drunks ;-) Mainly, I'm trying to say, you can't legislate and force your view of morality on people. You can make your point known and let it be known in a kinda & compassionate way why you believe that way. But these are grown ups who can make their own decisions. Let them.

#5. Wow, I got political there. That's rare. Anyway, I'm ready for winter to be over and done with. Snow has gone from sublime, to ridiculous, to utterly asinine. I keep begging my boss to move our office down to Tampa, but I don't see it happening haha. I can't take another snowstorm. I'd move to Hawaii, but Saturday taught us that may not be too safe. OK, griping done.

CONGRATS TO THE BAMA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM!! They ended their regular season with a win on the road. Great job ladies!

Good thing, a friend of mine was on her way to Chile late Friday/early Saturday. I wake up Saturday morning, turn on the news, hear about the earthquake. I get on FB, seeing posts about her needing to be heard from. Then I connected the dots. Her family hadn't heard from her since the earthquake. Prayers went up. Turns out, although she felt shaking on the bus, she was safe & sound. Praise God.

OK, that's enough for now. Have a good week and don't hate me for my views if you disagree. They are just opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Everyone is also entitled to be wrong. This may be your chance. hahaha

I Scream at the top of my lungs WHAT'S GOING ON!

Well, another pretty uneventful week in the life of Eddie. I traveled for work, I came back to a traffic jam of mythic proportions. That makes me glad I moved to where I did. Baltimore drivers are nutty nutty people. It took me over 2 hours to get home from the airport. Yeah, Homie don't play that. I'm not sure if it was road work or snow removal or idiots behind the wheel. At least I had gone to eat before I ventured out onto that asphalt abyss. Eating out, that's the best part of my market trips. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking, but not cleaning, and I've been super lazy lately.

At least I got a decent report from my arthritis doc today. He gave me a new anti-inflammatory because, well, I've been achy lately. No biggie, I have arthritis, I'm bound to hurt. The side effects may include drowsiness and/or dizziness. Well, I only take it morning & evening so if it makes me drowsy in the morning, I can sleep it off at work before I drive home. I'm still TONS better than I used to be. I don't even want to imagine having to shovel if my pain was still very bad. I'd have to pay someone or move. Disposable apartments, that could be fun. It'd keep me from fighting the urge to tell either my downstairs or next door neighbors to stop stomping around & closing so many doors. The things I miss about my old place: thicker walls, dishwasher, lack of shoveling. The things I don't: nosy neighbor, no private laundry, smaller tub.

Tiger Woods finally made a statement last week. Who cares. What he did is between him & his family. Does he really need to tell everyone he is sorry? C'mon after the 3rd mistress spoke out, we knew how sorry you really were you jerk. Plus, now these women are wanting apologies from him for lies they were told by him. ARE YOU FLIPPING KIDDING ME?!?!?! I'd like to introduce these women to something called REALITY. He was cheating on his wife with you and you knew it. Now you are shocked he was lying to you. I didn't think people could be that clueless. One woman was upset when she found out that he was cheating on his wife with someone other than her. Gain some self respect, get a clue, push Gloria Allred out of the way and move on with your life. I don't feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for the wife who was lied to and has watched as her life and family crumble in front of the prying media. She deserves pity and an apology, not people who knew it was wrong to begin with. It reminds me of those people who want to sue fast food places because they got fat eating there.

Finally, I've been watching The Olympics. They are entertaining enough and only slightly disturbing. Goodness, some weird outfits. I haven't seen that much Spandex seen I last went to the People of Wal Mart website. Then there was the US guy for bobsledding. Yikes! There is also all the figure skating with their bizarre costumes. The halfpipe skiers are wearing flannel hoodies and baggy jeans. But the most bizarre ones are the aerial skiers tonight. They have stars all over them. They look like footie pajamas a 4 year old would wear. I can't tell if they are being coached or if they are having their coach read them Goodnight Moon. Ice Dancing is on tonight. It's ok, but all those earnest facial expressions creep me out. Plus, pairs skating is cooler because the guys throw the women into jumps and lifts like they are rag dolls. Still, I hope the Russians lose. I'm just mean like that. In men's skating, I'm glad the Russian lost because he seems mean, cocky, self absorbed, and looks like a criminal on SVU.

Well, that's it for now, probably for February. Can't believe it's almost over. My sister had a birthday. Bama women's basketball had a close loss to UT and a big road win ROLL TIDE!! Plus I made it through 2 blizzards and a trip to Wisconsin. That's why I need a vacation to either San Diego or Tampa. Hopefully I'll decide soon!!

I Don't Wanna Be a Pharisee

Hello faithful readers. I come to you tonight from lovely Madison, WI. Doggoneit, it's been quite a long week for me. Last week when I wrote, I was digging out from a big snow storm, the biggest snow storm in Baltimore's history actually. Then, another storm had the AUDACITY to come through and dump another 2 feet of snow on the city. HOW DARE IT? The snow is taunting me. It knows I don't like it and therefore keeps coming around, like that one acquaintance you tolerate but really don't want around because they annoy you yet they keep showing up wherever you are. Well, due to the fact that my job doesn't stop just because it snows (and 7 of my 8 markets weren't snowed it) and there was too much work for me to do to try to work remotely, I stayed at a hotel during the storm. I then walked to work, where I was the only person there because the building had shut down. Yes, I'm just that dang dedicated. It was peaceful though Wednesday & Thursday. But my staff was still working from home remotely. They are awesome! But I was happy for Friday when things were back to normal, everyone was back at work, my car was unstuck, and I could eat something besides canned food! But then I worked late Friday, and Saturday, I had to shovel a heckuva lotta snow. I'm still achy. I'm fat, out of shape, and arthritic. I really should see if I can get a doctor's note and have insurance pay for someone else to shovel the snow. I'll check on that at my doctor's appointment next week (I will actually ask about my ankle though. Say a little prayer. My ankle has really been hurting for close to a month now. That can't be good)

But now I'm in Madison for work. Shoveled snow & washed clothes Saturday so I could pack and come here and help out our station here like I did in Raleigh. More cold & snow. Times like this I hate the north hahaha. Thankfully I love my job, too bad we aren't in Florida. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes I can handle. But my trip here was pretty uneventful (besides the girl behind me who seemed to have to hit my seat too often. I should have just leaned back in the seat), except I couldn't get the car charger on my GPS to work in my rental car. I should have gone back and asked the guy at the counter about it, but he was VERY blond and blue eyed. I think he was a grown up version of the kids in the movie "The Children of the Damned". Since I had no clue where I was going, that could be dangerous! So I tried on my iPhone. That worked, except instead of left & right, it uses east & west! Seriously? What, left & right too difficult? Turn east on X Road and bear south. NEWSFLASH: I WASN'T A BOY SCOUT! Give me left & right and I'm good. Also, I don't deal in miles as much as I deal in minutes. I live about 20-25 minutes from work, not miles. I did finally find where I needed to go after not too very long. Bad thing about Milwaukee, when I merged onto the interstate toward Madison, part of it was a steep curve. Those scare me to death! Hated that. So are large sporting arenas, it's the heights fear. Passed Miller Park in the dark, freaked again. Yup, I'm weird like that.

But I made it here to my hotel, which unlike the last 2 places, has WIFI and not just a wired high speed internet. Now I can sit on (sink into) the bed and not be tethered to the wall. I got drinks for the week, then to Denny's for hamburger steak with brown gravy, always a favorite of mine. I should have gotten a dessert. They had a brownie a la mode cheesecake. Cheesecake with nuts, hot fudge, brownie pieces, and topped with chocolate ice cream. ICE CREAM & CHEESECAKE? So gross I bet it's awesome, like those KFC bowls were!

I've watched some of the Olympics. Opening ceremonies had some good moments (the visuals of the whales & prairies, the use of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" which is one of my favorite songs ever) and some bad (the Nelly Furtado/Bryan Adams duet was PAINFUL!). Apolo Ohno is much less cocky & annoying now which is good. The death of the luger was tragic. Watched the finals of luge, and in a purely superficial moment, I asked myself "What's with the cowbells?" Sounds like a bunch of MSU rednecks drove up to Vancouver from Starkville.

Church today was very good. The preacher spoke about the verses in Luke where Jesus compared the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Tax collector were thought of in very low terms in those days. Pharisees thought highly of themselves. The Pharisee prayed to make a spectacle of himself and show just how "holy" he was. The tax collector prayed to ask forgiveness and humble himself because of how sinful he was. Are you praying to be seen by others or be heard by Him? There's your Sunday sermon.

Snow Falling Down Around You Like a Silent Prayer

Well, it's been quite a weekend here. First off, in case you haven't figured it out, I'm not a fan of snow. Snow deserves a Facebook dislike button. Snow ranks right up there with Jennifer Aniston, Nickelback, Mustard, Miley Cyrus, and pickles. In case you don't know me, or can't figure this out, I don't like those things. I don't care if you are a fan of any of those I listed, I'm not, it's my blog :-) First off, we were trying to get ahead at work because of the impending snow storm (one blogger for the Baltimore Sun called it the White Death. Yeah, not classy at all). I let all my stations know that we wanted to work ahead, we'd still get everything done and done correctly, just a bit faster than normal. I have 8 markets in 7 states and one department I have to deal with that's in one of those states. 99.9% of them were great about helping us get ahead. Then, there was 1 person. Because of this ONE PERSON and them not letting me, my boss, or their boss know how behind they were, I got out of the city JUST in time to avoid big travel problems. 3 words "they a heifer!" I did slide one time on my first attempt into the parking lot, but then was fine. So I slept late Saturday & Sunday (church was canceled), watched movies, watched TV, shoveled. Yes, I shoveled. A neighbor has a snow blower so that helped a lot. I shoveled the porch Saturday and ATTEMPTED to dig out my car. That was because some "genius" came through with a tractor and screwed up the traction royally. I got stuck about 3 times today. I finally got my car back in the original parking spot. I'm hitching a ride to work tomorrow with my boss, well, me & my sausage rolls are (sorry Union Chapel peeps!)

In happier news, the Alabama women's basketball team got a hard fought win today against Auburn. ROLL TIDE!! WTG Tierney Jenkins with a double double. I miss going to the games. I did it for I think a little over 10 years, once I finally started watching basketball again. That was thanks to Jeremy Hays. What are he & Dina up to these days?

WHO DAT!! The Saints won the Super Bowl, GEAUX SAINTS! They'd never won or even been to the Super Bowl before and they beat one of the best QBs the game has ever seen (yes, I'm a Bama fan and giving praise to a former UT player. What can I say, he's good). I skipped the halftime show. Not a fan of The Who. I don't hate them, but never got into them. But would it kill the NFL to have more than one act, or do more than classic rock? Just saying. The commercials this year weren't all that great. Not many were memorable either. Most were predictable or rip offs or played on dumb stereotypes. Beer drinkers will do anything for beer, guys are stupid, a little kid in a commercial will be funny and act unlike a little kid, animals will do weird things animals can't do and be human like. I liked the Coke ads best, as well as the ones with the Griswolds. The e*Trade spots still creep me out, Megan Fox looks like an evil cyborg bent on destroying earth, Tim Tebow's head is shaped like a potato, and Charles Barkley proves you don't have to lose weight while eating Taco Bell.

It Happens!

Well, I've been sappy & sentimental and happy tree-hugging and all loving lately. There is a time and place for that, and I always will have that as a part of me. But sometimes, life happens and I just have to talk about it. Ain't y'all happy 'bout DAT!

#1, I hate snow. I'm sick of it. Snow affects everything you do up here. I'm sick of walking on it, driving on it, shoveling it, people driving like fools in it, brushing it off my car, etc. In theory and on vacation, snow is good. It's beautiful and peaceful and very scenic and can be fun. But in life, you have to deal with the messiness of it, and how it affects & messes up your everyday life. In other words, it's like falling in love on vacation. It sounds wonderful & romantic and the movies make it seem great, but in real life, it leaves your life messy, cold, & complicated. I'll take a thunderstorm, thank you.

Today at work was nutty. (very short work rant, but relates to snow). Apparently, when anyone asks, I have to immediately drop everything and put all my focus on you. Today, I was working to get a little ahead because of the possibility of a few feet of snow this Friday. I told folks that working ahead was my #1 priority. Apparently, that was an open invitation to be needy. I need to start making everyone take a number. NOW SERVING #12!

Wal-Mart, 2 days before a snow storm and at 8pm, decided that only 6 checkers were needed to handle all the volume. SERIOUSLY?!?! Yeah, that's good planning. Those poor checkers.

But last night, I did find one of the best worst shows EVER. It's called "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant!" WOW!!!! The stories themselves are entertainingly bad enough. Ladies, mothers, can you really not know you are pregnant? Aren't there some things that happen, or don't happen? Then one day, you have some back or stomach pain, you end up in the bathroom, or at the emergency room and 2 hours later it's "OH MY WORD I JUST HAD A BABY!" It just boggles my mind, especially when these ladies recount it very matter of factly. "Yeah, I was in pain, got on the floor and that's when I realized my water broke. Well, let me get my 10 old to call 911 and then let me traumatize him for life." But then, there are the re-enactments. The acting is so bad, it makes Avatar look like Hamlet. If you like bad TV, you have to watch this. I think it's on Discovery Health. Discovery, TLC, all those channels have weird programming now. I think they were supposed to be educational at some time in the past. Now, The Learning Channel has the Toddlers & Tiara show, or as I like to call it, the beginning of the end times.

Finally, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I remember growing up loving this food. But now, I realize you have to eat that junk when it is first made. Once air hits, it begins to devolve into some substance that no longer resembles cheese and only by the slightest margin resembles macaroni. What is in it that makes it turn into this yellow gluey mess? Ugh!

Hope you are hungry, ENJOY!!