Anyone else as tired as I am of hearing Phelps this and Phelps that? Seriously. Everyone and MY Mother knows what he eats for breakfast! Who the hell cares?? In the meantime, you try to talk to someone about the war in Georgia and they’ll ask, what’s going on down south?
Sure I was just as ecstatic as everyone was when I saw Lezak make that impossible dash to beat the French by the tiniest fraction of a second. I couldn’t believe I watched Lezak make that comeback. You don’t usually see that kind of thing in swimming, where someone sort of sprints to the finish. But Lezak did it!
And yet, the first few comments made about Lezak’s feat was, Lezak has kept Phelps’ hopes alive for winning 8 gold medals.
You mean, out of the possible FOURTEEN gold medals he could have by the end of this Olympics, he actually could’ve lost one of them? Oh my God!! What in the world are we to do?? Someone, quick, hold my hand I think I’m going to faint!
Puh-lease!
Never mind that Phelps was the first man in that four-man relay and even the great Phelps was behind the French.
Oh I’m sure he’s earned all the attention and the title of being the greatest Olympian evar. And I’m sure, a few years from now I’ll appreciate the fact that I watched history happen. But not today. Far as I’m concerned, Phelps could compete in every men’s sport and win all the gold medals, I’m done watching this dude, rippling muscles and all.
In the monster movie genre, zombies are my favorite. Vampires? They’re not real. Werewolves? Puh-lease, they’re just like rabid dogs, not at all scary. Mummies are kind of cool, but have you ever heard of a mummy in North America? Zombies, on the other hand, can be anywhere! Besides what could be scarier than humans coming back to life? Even worse, humans coming back to life with one sole purpose, to eat us alive!
More than likely, I’d freeze up and completely forget all my survival instincts. Or I’d do something foolhardy like grab a gun and start shooting at their chest, which, if you read the guide, is about as effective as throwing marshmallows at them, and that is really going to exacerbate things.
Anyway, armed with zombie survival knowledge, I can sleep better at night knowing I can protect myself and my family. Now, if only they had a survival guide for poltergeists.
My alarm went off at 4:00AM on Saturday and for once, I didn’t hit the snooze button. I jumped in the shower, got dressed and was in my car, heading west by 4:45AM. Halfway through my early morning adventure, I stopped for gas and for some donuty goodness.
I reached my destination exactly when I had intended to reach it, at 6:00AM. The fields of Solberg Airport were still wet from the morning’s dew and it was cold and foggy but weather reports predicted a clear, calm, sunny morning. Perfect for flying.
I found a spot in the middle of the “launch area” and waited patiently for the festivities to begin. I watched as more people came in to the field and set up their little lawn chairs, while photographers set up their tripods.
Just as the little children were beginning to get impatient, we saw movement in the launch area and suddenly, an announcer came on the speaker and started to explain the events unfolding in front of us.
You see, I attended the 26th Annual Quick Chek Festival of Ballooning on Saturday. They claim to have over 100 hot air balloons during the festival and I always miss it! Well, not this year!
I watched as the first balloon was first cold-filled (the process of inflating the balloon with cold air) and then hot-filled (filling it with hot air and giving it buoyancy). It took about 20 minutes to get the balloon ready for lift-off. At the time, I was surrounded by a large family of 7 who arrived at the field 10 minutes before I did, so they were pretty resltess for the inflation to get started. But when it finally did, the little children’s excitement was contagious and I couldn’t help giving the same squeal of delight when we all saw the first balloon stand upright.
After the first balloon was fully inflated, other balloons started getting set up too, including this year’s guest of honor - Darth Vader! Yeap, you read that right, Darth freakin’ Vader is at a family event, cause nothing says good family fun quite like, “Luke, I am your father!”
They said that Darth Vader is making his first flight in the U.S. He came from Belgium. Hmmm…I thought he came from Tattoine?
Two words: Awe. Some!
It was around 7:00AM when the first balloon finally rose up to the sky. A couple of minutes after the first balloon went up, another one followed it. And shortly thereafter, a balloon was rising to the air every few seconds. The more balloons that went up, the giddier I got. At one point, I turned around to express my giddiness to the person beside me, but there was no one there, for alas, no one wanted to come with me. Their loss.
Anyway, since hot air balloons can’t be navigated, they are at the mercy of the wind and that morning, the wind was blowing them east, towards the sunrise and above the crowd. I watched as dozens of balloons flew above my head. The bigger balloons took the longest to inflate, so they were among the last to lift off, and by then it was already 7:45AM.
Dozens of balloons heading towards the sun
Arky is finally up and ready
The “Little” Bees, Joey is on the left and Lilly is on the right. Aren’t they the cutest??
I love how they actually look like they’re flying!
Smile!
I took over 240 pictures because I didn’t want to take any chances and miss anything. But I narrowed down the good ones and have posted them on my flickr account. Click here to see them all.
I watched every balloon go up, or at least the ones not tied to the ground. The tethered balloons were for those semi-adventurous types who didn’t quite work up the nerve to actually float away. The entire time I was at the festival, I debated whether I had the nerve to go up in one. It would’ve cost me $195 to float away in one of the balloons or $15 to go up in the tethered ones. I ended up doing neither one because a) $195 felt like a lot of money to fly for 1/2 hour, b) $15 felt like a cheap thrill and a cop out and c) I would’ve like to have had someone I know go up with me and since I had no one, I didn’t go.
There were dozens of tents set up with your typical festival stuff but I wasn’t interested in any of them, so I left around 8:00AM and was back in bed by 9:00AM. I want y’all to notice just how early this is because I don’t normally see “morning” on weekends.
But it was so worth it because I had soooo much fun. I didn’t care that I was about the oldest child there, that I drove from so far away just to get there and that I went by myself. All that mattered was that I had fun.
It’s a photo-blog. I’d like to join an online photo scavenger hunt that’s simple and, frankly, not annoying. Until then, I’ll be posting some of my old favorite pictures.
Of course, if you folks have any challenges for me, like, a picture of an elephant in a concrete jungle, feel free to throw them at me!
The purpose of all this is to help me become a better photographer, or at least make photography a real hobby for me and not just something to shoo away boredom.
So, I hope you enjoy it and please don’t be afraid to give some good, honest critiques my way.
“What’s the matter, Beth? You look depressed today.”
Well, that’s something I never heard of before. Often I hear something like, “You look good today” or “You look sick today,” but I don’t like to hear either one cause the former implies I don’t look good every day and the latter implies that, well, I look sick. But depressed? How does one even look depressed? I don’t normally walk around moping or pouting and I’ve stayed away from wearing dark, gloomy colors. In fact, I’ve even made it a point to wear light-colored and lightweight outfits because it’s been pretty damn hot lately.
And it hasn’t been easy to keep cool. I spent nearly two hours on Sunday waxing my car. My baby looked fah-bu-lous! She’s so shiny and so smooth, you can eat off of it. And then Monday morning came and brought along Mother Nature’s wrath, pouring buckets of rain all over my hard work and sweat. Lots of sweat. It was not pretty.
At the last hour before I hit the hay, I turn my A/C up to deep freeze. I want it to be cold enough for me to sleep under the covers because it feels unnatural for me to sleep above the covers. Hey, if God had intended us to sleep above the covers He would not have invented blankets! But either it’s getting really really hot lately or my A/C’s not working that well because I’d wake up to find my blankets on the floor. And I’m sweating!
What’s with all the sweating? A little summer glow is good, I suppose, but this is ridiculous!
So the new iPhone comes out today. You can get to the internet faster! Whoop-de-freaking-do! God forbid I’m ever out and about and I can’t get to your blogs in lightning speed!
But I think this is a good time for me to talk about cell phones as my current two-year plan with Verizon will be ending in exactly 4 weeks and it’s about time I get a new phone. My current phone has served me well but I’m pretty sure a newer one will serve me even better…..cause I am just a smidgeon less materialistic than those who are brainwashed by the iPhone-mania (but I am oodles more hypocritical).
Anyway, my needs are simple when it comes to cell phones. I need it to be light and compact, I have enough crap in my purse. I need a full keyboard for text messaging. I can’t imagine how I ever lived with an alpha-numeric keypad before, cause I don’t have the patience to press 1 a gazillion times just so I can spell out :-P.
I need a phone with some kind of GPS on it. While I don’t need GPS (on principle if I’m ever lost and I can’t find my own way back, then I deserve to be lost forever), it’s a nice backup to have when I’m not in my own car where I carry several maps. And trust me, I’ve been in plenty of other people’s cars who don’t have maps and my VZ Navigator saved the day. Frankly, I don’t like the idea that someone or something knows exactly where I am every second of the day. Ever seen “Enemy of the State”?
I don’t need Bluetooth capability cause I’m not an asshole.
I don’t need an mp3 player. I have an mp3 player that’s about the size of my pinkie finger. Okay, I exaggerate but it’s tiny enough that I can afford to carry another piece of equipment in my purse without it getting in the way.
While my last couple of phones had a camera in it, it’s not necessary. I still have my compact digicam and my D40 that I carry with me where ever and when ever I can. Besides, the picture quality in most phones are crap anyway.
I don’t need internet connection. I think I’d start hating myself if I ever become so dependent on the internet that I need it to be available to me everywhere I go.
I don’t need motion-sensing games, or any digital games for that matter. I have a Nintendo DS, a rubik’s cube and a wooden paddle with a bouncy ball tied to the paddle. That’s all I need to keep me entertained.
But what I need to really consider is my carrier. I have been a loyal Verizon customer since I got my first job in public accounting 7 years ago! Seven years, folks! Have you ever been someone’s client/customer for that long? And in all those years, I have never had a complaint. Okay, I get a couple of dropped calls once in a while, there are still some areas where that huge crowd of Verizon employees hasn’t been able to follow me around (like the top of Mauna Kea, Glenwood Springs, a cruise ship on the Atlantic Ocean) but no phone company is perfect in that respect.
But the thing of it is, my sisters are all on T-Mobile. And if I switch to T-Mobile I can be one of their “Faves” (as if I wasn’t already their favorite) and we can talk, literally, forever! Not that I want to talk to my sisters forever, they have a tendency of picking on me and being annoying, but at least I know that I have that option.
I don’t know. I’m so torn. What do you guys think?
Last night, over a couple of martinis, made all the more delicious because of their special $4 price, I was finally able to meet the person behind one of my favorite blogs, Complete and Total Bisch.
We had a very nice time chatting it up about, oh, a whole buncha stuff, some of which is classified information. And by classified, I mean, sucks to be you for not being there!
I was amazed that it didn’t take me long to get over my natural nervousness over meeting new people. Granted, Karen’s not technically a new person since I’ve read her blog for a couple of years now, so I was already sort of comfortable talking to her. Although, I have to admit, I may have still been a little nervous because it felt like I was rambling a lot, which I have a tendency of doing when I, for some reason, feel the need to impress people with my conversational skills, which, at its best, is enough to pass ESL standards, apparently*.
Anyway, I couldn’t help reminiscing over my very first blog-meet, and how terribly nervous I was back then, not to mention, completely freaked out! Last night was so much easier than that first blog-meet two years (has it been that long??) ago, mostly because I didn’t have to fly for four hours to meet Karen. All I had to do was drive to Jersey City. Although I did have to parallel park, which I suck at, and then I had to decipher some strange, ethnic symbols they call “parking signs.” But it was so worth it.
Last night was definitely good times. Good company, good conversation, good drinks, good times all around!
*There’s a story that happened yesterday at work that made me think of ESL standards that you’ll have to remind me to tell you some other time.
Okay, I just misspelled my own name on a letter I wrote to the IRS. I think it’s time to go home!
Time to shut down your computers, turn off all the lights and get an early start to this long weekend. Mine’s extra long since I was smart enough to ask for Monday off. So, *pbffft* to all of yous.
I am so ready to celebrate Independence Day. I’m wearing a blue top, a white skirt and red undies. Oh, wait, I think that’s French. Never mind.
I’ll also be celebrating my fourth year of blogging at the end of this month! Be ready for The Beth Quiz!
And that’s all I got, so make it a great holiday weekend, folks!
You know, I wish someone had told me I had nothing to worry about today. Oh no wait, everyone did!
I spent the whole night last night fretting that everything would go wrong with the deposition. Like, I’d lose focus and say the wrong thing, or I’d get to the wrong place and end up missing the deposition or I’d lose courage and fall apart crying in front of the lawyers, the plaintiff (who will be referred to from now on as the Dirty, Greedy, Money-Grubbing Douchebag, or The Douchebag for short), the court reporter and God.
But none of that happened. Well, with the exception of my lawyer showing up half an hour late and adding 10 years of wear and tear to my already aggravated nervous system. He apologized and did a fantastic job of prepping me for the deposition, so I forgave him.
I’ve never been deposed before but my lawyer reassured me there’s nothing to be nervous about. He gave me strict instructions to be truthful and careful when I speak, especially since the ever-vigilant court reporter will be recording every little thing that is said. Everything, did you say? You mean, if I said, “Boom shaka laka laka,” I can ask the court reporter to repeat what I just said?
But no, no time for funny business. This is serious, grown-up stuff. I’m being sued, for God’s sake!
So, I put on my serious face and steeled myself for the questions to start. But I immediately stumbled when the court reporter told me to raise my right hand and asked me if I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? I panicked! With the first question!! I mean, do I say, “Yes, ma’am”? It felt really weird for me to be saying, “I do” cause isn’t that just for weddings? Grammatically speaking, though, shouldn’t I answer, “I will” cause technically, I will be telling the truth with all its wholey goodness?
I forget what I said. In fact, the rest of the deposition was a blur. I may have choked on a few, seemingly simple questions. But the friggin’ court reporter was unnerving! She was just sitting there, with her little machine-thingy, being all calm and cool. It bugged me! She asked me to spell my Mom’s name (who was at the accident at the time), and I’m like, “how the hell are you taking all this? There are no letters on your machine!! Tell me, woman!!”
You’d be proud of me, though. I could’ve seriously cracked but I didn’t. Well, not so much that anyone noticed.
I’m glad it’s over. My lawyer tried to convince me that there is nothing to worry about. The next step is arbitration, he said, but that won’t be for a while. And even when it gets to that, my lawyers and insurance company will take care of everything. I have nothing to worry about.
I was spending a lazy Sunday afternoon cleaning up my filing cabinet, getting ready for the deposition this Tuesday, when I started hearing thunder outside. I thought nothing of it since the weather men actually got it right this time with their thunderstorm forecast. I went back to my filing when I thought I heard someone throw a rock at my window. I peeked out the window and, of course, saw no one outside. The window in my bedroom overlooks my neighbor’s neat backyard, a backyard that my neighbor hardly ever uses. He never barbecues in that yard, he doesn’t even have outdoor furniture. He doesn’t hang out to admire his yard work or wonder if today would be the day I forget to close the blinds while I change.
I ignored the noise, but just as I turned around, I heard several other taps on my window. And that’s when I saw it - ice on my windowsill. A second later, several other chunks of ice fell and the next thing I know, it’s raining ice!
It may not be unheard of to have hail during the first official weekend of the summer, but this hail storm only lasted about 30 minutes and as soon as it was over, the sun shone so brightly and the sky cleared up so quickly, that I thought it was some sign of the apocalypse. But after I while, I realized that the horsemen weren’t coming, so I went back to my filing and turned on the tv. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re showing “Ghostbusters.”
What a perfect way to end my first summer weekend!
I’m back from vacation! Well, I’ve been back for a couple of days now, I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about my trip. Why? Well, I’ve been trying to figure out how it’s possible that someone could get bronchitis from Denver, what with all their clean, Rocky mountain air and all the supposedly therapeutic hot springs. Okay, maybe not bronchitis, but it’s a terrible cough/cold nevertheless. My ex-boyfriend informs me that it might be a tumor.
Each time I cough it feels like someone’s pinching the back of my head. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since I got back because of the nasty coughing fits I get in the middle of the night. I’ve missed a couple of days of work last week because of it and while that’s not a crying shame, I would’ve liked to have done something more fun on those days off than coughing out my lungs.
But anyway, my trip to Denver was very nice. If you haven’t clicked on my sidebar to see the pics, here’s your chance. I got to see a Rockies game, which was a lot of fun. They played against the Brewers, who were kicking ass in the first 6 innings of the game. When the Rockies were down 4 to 1, Bill and I decided it’s time to leave and meet up with his friends at a bar nearby. By the time we got to the bar, the Rockies miraculously pulled a 6-4 win! I hate missing come-from-behind games like that!
We met up with Bill’s friends, had a few drinks and eventually went home.
The following day, Bill and I drove west to Glenwood Springs and took a long, lovely dip in natural hot springs. It was fantastic! It was better than a spa. Well, except for the fact that there were a bunch of annoying little boys ages 14-16 who insisted on playing Marco Polo loudly. Oh, if only they knew that being immature like that would keep them from losing their virginity for another year or so.
On Sunday, we had lunch in Vail and headed to a town called Canon City where they have the Royal Gorge, which has the world’s highest suspension bridge. Built in 1929, the bridge is a marvel in gravity-defiance. We parked the car at one end of the brigde and decided to walk across its quarter-mile length of uneven wooden planks. I cannot stress how uneven these planks are. At certain points, the gap in between the wooden planks were so big that you could look down and clearly see the roaring Arkansas river 1,500 feet below.
Have I mentioned that I’m afraid of heights? Oh yes. It’s a mild fear, compared to other fears I run away from. But it was a windy day that day and every time a car drove past us, the bridge shook, making my knees weaker and weaker by the minute. I dared a couple of times to walk to the side of the bridge, hold on for dear life and look down. When we made it across, I wanted to start praying my thanks to every god there is out there when I realized that we still have to walk back!
We walked around for a bit, saw some jackasses and bighorns, not to mention some burros and rams (wink wink). Then we started the long walk back across the bridge. This time, I decided to walk in the middle of the bridge and tried not to look down. Having nothing else to hold on to, I put a kung-fu grip on my camera and held my breath the rest of the way. Bill tried to keep my mind occupied by talking about something meaningful or was it something trivial? I don’t know, I forget. But cross that bridge, I did and face my fear, I conquered, so booyah!
The rest of my trip in Denver was relatively quiet, spent watching movies and some of our favorite epsiodes of “The Office.” My flight from Denver to Newark was uneventful, except for meeting the most talented flight attendant ever. He had such a lovely singing voice and had such a knack for singing about anything and nothing at all. He asked me if I wanted anything to drink, and I said I just wanted him to sing, so sing he did and I fell right to sleep. I woke up to find myself in Newark, schweating in my fleece sweater that I had bought in Vail to keep me warm. Apparently, I had just missed the year’s first heat-wave in the tri-state area. Lucky me.
It’s still pretty hot, but the temperature doesn’t read three digits anymore, so thank God for small favors, I suppose. I have a pretty busy week ahead of me and the last thing I need is to be hot and bothered and coughing and heavily medicated. Hmmmm….Nyquil.
I kind of wondered what it was like to watch a baseball game 20 years ago. I'm sure beer was not $8.00 back then.
Old Shea meets....
...the brand new Citi Field Stadium
Who in their right mind would bring a newborn baby to a baseball game when there's a threat of thunderstorm?
A couple of foul balls flew up in the same area and it looked like the same people or same group of people caught the balls. Lucky bastards.
The little boy eventually got punched in the stomach by the boy he was playing with. I guess he got tired of being flashed.
We were getting bored with the game, so we decided to leave at the bottom of the 7th when the Mets were down by 2. I took this picture thinking they sure could use a homerun right about now to get back into this ball game. And wouldn't you know it, as we were getting into the train station, someone did and they eventually won it! I'd be happy for them, except it's the Mets, so I couldn't care less.
Ps. WordPress gave me such a hard time posting this picture gallery that I actually went over midnight, but I’m counting this post towards May 31st. So, I managed 30 posts in 31 days. I’d say I earned myself a well-earned kudos! Anyway, if you want to see the full sized pictures, just click on my sidebar, they’re in flickr now.
Today was a really good day. Well, except for the fact that my left ring finger feels like I bumped it really hard into something, and the fact that I ran into a glass door at lunchtime and was laughed at by little brats, and the fact that I’ve been searching for good dark-wash jeans for several days now to no avail. Yeah, other than those things, it was a good day.
We had clear, bright blue skies, low humidity, a slight breeze here and there, with temperatures going up to 80 degrees only. And we had that kind of weather all week-long.
Around 3pm today, we had to turn off our computers for a server upgrade, leaving us with no work to do, so my boss very generously let us out early, treating a couple of us to a round of beer at our favorite watering hole. Free beer is the best kind of beer there is.
I gave up soda this week. I’ve been soda-free for three whole days. Been drinking gallons of water ever since and peeing like a race horse soon afterwards.
A friend remarked on the fact that it doesn’t seem to bother me to be talking about Hawai’i. I suppose she had expected me to loathe the thought of Hawai’i because of the breakup. Hawai’i was heaven on earth and no ex-boyfriend can ruin that for me.
So I had thoughts of Hawai’i for the rest of the day and it made me feel great.
