The Truth Revealed, Part IV… 12 March 2008

Fourth in this week’s “fact or fiction” series… I am posting one answer/story for five days (Sun – Thurs) and will post the final two answers/stories on Friday. One whole week of blogging from me – don’t you feel special? You can find the original post here, I’ve also included links to Part I and Part II, and Part III…

4. While driving through Kansas late one night (I know I have a lot of “late one night” stories, but I’m a night owl, what do you expect?), I happened through a speed trap operated by the county sheriff’s department, was stopped for absolutely no reason, and received a ticket for “failure to monitor.”

Status: FALSE

Though almost true…  One night about 9pm, I was driving through Kansas on I-70, somewhere between Salina and Topeka, on my way home to Missouri to visit the family.  As I was driving, I noticed red and blue flashing lights ahead, and slowed down to the speed limit (I had been going eight over).  As I passed the first officer who had someone stopped, I signaled and pulled into the left lane.  I remained in the left lane as I passed a second, third, and then fourth police cruiser…  All with lights flashing…  All with someone stopped…

 ”Self,” I said, “the local sheriff’s deputies seem to be awfully bored tonight, you’d better be on your best behavior…”

A few moments later, I noticed red and blue flashing lights in my rear-view mirror.  I signaled, slowed, and pulled to the shoulder of the interstate.  While waiting for the officer to approach, I readied my license, proof of insurance, and registration.  A couple minutes after I was stopped, the officer approached my car, and asked me the usual questions…  How I was doing, where I was headed, etc.  Then he took the paraphernalia I had gathered, and went back to do his ”thing.” 

I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, because I had been on my best driving behavior once I realized I was passing through a routine traffic stop area, but getting stopped is always a bit nerve wracking.  Especially the waiting… 

 After what seemed like a good ten minutes, though it was probably closer to two, the officer returned holding the dreaded slip of paper…  “I’m going to let you go with a warning (note: not a ticket), he said.”  Even though he never told me why I’d been stopped in the first place…  I thanked him, playing Ms. Polite Driver, and began to ready myself to pull back onto the interstate from the shoulder.  The officer was ready before I was and pulled back onto the highway just in time to stop the next car that passed him (I promise – he didn’t even get up to the speed limit before he stopped that car). 

When I finally got to MO, I told the family about how I was stopped in KS for no reason, and we had a good laugh about it.  They asked what I had been warned for, and I said I didn’t know b/c I wasn’t told…  So, we pulled out the dreaded slip of paper, and noticed that in the comments section the officer had written “failure to monitor.” 

Monitor what?  Your guess is as good as mine… 

Congratulations to Boone, David, and Megan for correctly identifying item four as false.

The Truth Revealed, Part III… 11 March 2008

Third in this week’s “fact or fiction” series…  I am posting one answer/story for five days (Sun – Thurs) and will post the final two answers/stories on Friday.  One whole week of blogging from me – don’t you feel special?  You can find the original post here, I’ve also included links to Part I and Part II…

3. I tried out for American Idol, and made it through the first couple rounds, but wasn’t good (or bad) enough to audition for Randy, Paula, and Simon.

Status:  FALSE

 Unfortunately, I don’t have a really good story to go with this one.  I posted it because most folks know I sing pretty well, and was even blessed with the opportunity to participate in a couple of international chorus tours while in college.  I figured that I might be able to trick a few folks into picking this fiction as truth based on their knowledge of my singing abilities…  Of course, that’s what I was trying to do with all seven of my scenarios, and I did so quite well, if I do say so myself, since no one correctly classified all seven items.

Of course, y’all know that I wouldn’t post something that I didn’t have at least a a little something to share about, so here is my AI non-audition anecdote…

My youngest sister is 15, and back when Idol first came out, she was a HUGE fan.  She wanted to audition for the show, but she was obviously too young.  Approximately four or five years ago, just after the maximum age limit for Idol hopefuls was raised from 23 (or whatever it was) to 29, my sis and I had a conversation similar to the following…  NOTE: Sis would have been 10-11 at the time

Sis:  They raised the audition age limit, I think you should audition for American Idol.

Me: It’s really not my thing, plus I don’t think I’m good enough to audition

Sis:  Sure you are…  You’re better than pretty much everyone on there.

Me: no comment, just a very skeptical expression

Sis:  If you audition, you’d definitely make to Hollywood, and you’d probably make the top ten, but you wouldn’t win…

Siblings…  Gotta love ‘em… 

Congratulations to Char, Stephanie, David, Camille, Megan, and Laura (six of my eight voters) for correctly guessing item three was untrue.   

The Truth Revealed, Part II… 10 March 2008

Second in this week’s “fact or fiction” series…  I am posting one answer/story for five days (Sun – Thurs) and will post the final two answers/stories on Friday.  One whole week of blogging from me – don’t you feel special?  You can find the original post here, and the answer to part I here.  And without further ado, Part II is revealed…

2. When traveling late one night, I stopped for gas, then got confused when I tried to get back onto the interstate and wound up driving the wrong direction for an entire hour before I realized I was going the wrong way.

Status:  FALSE

As most people know, I’m pretty good with maps and directions.  My mom prefers to sleep on trips, so I was the ”navigator” from the time I was about seven or eight and could read maps. 

That being said, the inspiration for this particular choice was a story from my friend Alison.  Several years ago, Alison met a young Naval officer on a christian singles website and after they talked for a week or two, they decided to meet in person.  They chose a location approximately halfway in between their locations (and where Alison was familiar with the area and what there was to do).  Alison arrived at the destination with plenty of time to spare, checked into the hotel for the both of them since the young seaman was running behind, and paid for both rooms for the first night of their two night stay, having agreed with the gentleman that he would pay for both rooms for the second night upon his arrival. 

Alison’s young friend finally arrived several hours later than planned (so much for military promptness), and the two enjoyed a late dinner and retired to their separate rooms.  The next morning they got up and spent the day exploring the town where they had met.  When they returned to their hotel to freshen up before dinner, Alison discovered that the key card to her room did not work.  She went down to the front desk to discover that the supposed “upstanding” officer had not paid for the second night at the hotel as they had agreed, and all of Alison’s belongings had been removed from her room and were sitting in the hotel manager’s office. 

Alison was able to retrieve her belongings, and went ahead and paid for HER second night’s stay.  Why did she have to pay for her room when her “friend” was supposed to have paid for it?  Remember, Alison had paid for both rooms for first night, so he was supposed to cover the second.

Well…  When Alison found out what happened, and approached this “gentleman” about it, she discovered that he hadn’t paid for the rooms because he was broke.  Apparently, the young seaman had stopped at several rest-stops along the way and purchased a variety of “gifts” for Alison…  Kitschy, interstate rest-stop type gifts…  Gifts that can only be politely described as “crap.”  And while at one of these stops, this young man somehow wound up getting mixed up and drove for something like an hour and a half in the wrong direction on I-10 before he realized that he was going the wrong way…  Which is made all the more funny by the fact that this young man being a Naval officer, we can only presume that he sat through countless hours of classes where he learned to navigate by the stars. 

Well, he should have learned…  But having heard the entire story from Alison (this is just one small episode of a much longer and exponentially more hilarious tale) the fact that he got lost on I-10 is not incredibly surprising.  Perhaps someday Alison will return to the world of blogging and post the entire story.  It’s definitely a worthwhile read.   

 Congratulations to Camille and Chelf for getting this second part of the challenge correct. 

The Truth Revealed, Part I… 9 March 2008

So…  A couple weeks ago I posted a list of seven items, three truths and four lies, and asked for y’all to vote on which ones you thought were/weren’t true.  My intention was to leave the post up for a week and then post an answer a day starting last Sunday.  However, the weather (which kept me in MO an extra day) and the flu bug (take two) had other ideas…  Camille has been kind enough to continue bugging me about posting the answers, so here goes…  I will post one answer/story for five days (today – Thurs) and will post the final two answers/stories on Friday.  One whole week of blogging from me – don’t you feel special?

1. Ten friends and I were kicked out of McDonald’s because our straw-flicking contest was frightening the other patrons.

Status: TRUE

My freshman year at Harding, the marching band was invited to Dallas, TX, to perform at the dedication ceremony for a new gymnasium at Dallas Christian Schools.  Early Friday morning (Halloween), we loaded into two chartered busses and set out for the six to seven-ish hour trip from Searcy to Dallas.  We were especially excited to discover that the chartered busses we were taking were equipped with VHS/video sysems and we would be able to watch movies, etc. during our trip.  I wound up on the bus led by our fearless director, Mr. Chance…  Mr. Chance’s idea of a great way to make use of the on-board video system was to watch recordings of old drum corp competitions.  Needless to say, by the time we reached Texarkana, AR/TX, our scheduled lunch stop, several of us were in an interesting mood… 

 The Mall in Texarkana has several restaurants, which made it an ideal stop for two bus-loads of college students to grab lunch fairly quickly.  The group I wound up eating with chose to eat at McDonald’s.  One thing that I should note.  The McD’s at this particular mall wasn’t a food court-type McD’s, but an actual restaurant attached to the mall.  Anyway…  The bunch of us who chose to eat at McD’s (I’m estimating there were about ten of us) got our food and sat down in one section of the restaurant.  Most of us had finished eating, and were just sitting around killing some time while the others finished, when someone got the bright idea that we should have a straw popping contest to see who could make the loudest pop. 

Most of you likely know what straw popping is, but I feel the need to include an explanation for the few who are unfamiliar with the process.  Straw-popping is a team sport.  One person pinches each end of a straw, then rolls the straw up - end over end - trapping air inside the straw.  Once the straw is rolled tightly, the second person flicks the middle of the straw, causng the plastic to burst, and the escaping air causes a loud pop. 

Well, when you have a group of ten folks, that breaks down to five “teams” of straw poppers.  And when you’ve got five sets of straws being popped at once, well, that makes for quite a racket.  So much of a racket, that only a few minutes into our little contest, the manager of that partcular McDonald’s restaurant approached our group, and informed us that we needed to leave the restaurant as our game was frightening the other patrons, who thought the straw popping sounded like gunfire.

Congratulations to Char, David, Camille, Megan, Laura, and Chelf, for getting this answer correct. 

A fun challenge… 21 February 2008

I was bored tonight and couldn’t sleep, so I started using the handy dandy “next” button on my wordpress toolbar.  Sometimes it takes me to interesting blogs, sometimes it doesn’t…  Tonight it took me to a blog with the following fun little game…  It reminds me of a game I’ve played with friends called “fact or crap.”  I’ll give y’all a week to guess the correct answers. 

Below, you’ll find three truths and four lies about me.  Which ones do you think are true?  Post your guesses in the comment section. 

1. Ten friends and I were kicked out of McDonald’s because our straw-flicking contest was frightening the other patrons.
2. When traveling late one night, I stopped for gas, then got confused when I tried to get back onto the interstate and wound up driving the wrong direction for an entire hour before I realized I was going the wrong way.
3. I tried out for American Idol, and made it through the first couple rounds, but wasn’t good (or bad) enough to audition for Randy, Paula, and Simon.
4. While driving through Kansas late one night (I know I have a lot of “late one night” stories, but I’m a night owl, what do you expect?), I happened through a speed trap operated by the county sheriff’s department, was stopped for absolutely no reason, and received a ticket for “failure to monitor.”
5. A friend and I once drove around the “ghetto” of Montgomery, AL, on a Saturday night in a purple PT cruiser with lavender and fuchsia flames painted on the side.
6. While waiting on a friend, I watched a lady’s purse get stolen, and didn’t do anything to try and stop the thief.
7. Three friends and I were kicked out of the museum at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (aka Space Camp) in Huntsville, AL, for hanging from the runners of the helicopters that were on display and playing “MacGyver.” 

Random Search Terms, Volume 7.0 11 February 2008

It’s been a while since I posted any of these… I’ve been tracking the search terms, but I haven’t really been in the mood to provide commentary. Lucky for you, tonight I was in a more catty mood than usual, so here you go – enjoy!

• Cartoon of a monkey on a rope – I don’t have any cartoons, but I do have a funny story about math problem…
• math world problem with a monkey on a rope – ah, so you can’t solve it, either
• pink Cardinals purse – why would someone want a pink Cardinals purse when they could be a *true* fan and get a red one…
• farside cartoons following directions – I didn’t know cartoons could follow directions…  Well, except for those of the cartoonist.
• wash boring pictures – does washing them make them less boring?
• SLIPKNOT MADE DOLLARS 2006 – I thought the federal reserve made dollars…
• list of random search terms – you’ve most certainly come to the right place!
• random search terms testing – will there be official grades issued regarding the randomness of the search terms once testing is completed?
• HCL burns – it does?  I had no idea!
• “the balloons in my car” – what am I supposed to know about the balloons in your car?
• Laura’s cow is boring – You obviously either have me confused with a different Laura, or you haven’t met my cow…

Tagged again… 6 February 2008

My cousin SueZQue tagged me last week (I think) and I’m finally getting around to doing the tag…  I’m not going to tag anyone else (because several folks I know have already done it at one time or another) but feel free to borrow it if you’d like. 

 Four jobs that I’ve had:
1. nanny
2. glue
3. babysitter of drunk 40 year olds
4. if I told you, I’d have to kill you

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. A&E’s Pride and Prejudice
2. Monsters, Inc.
3. Moulin Rouge
4. When Harry Met Sally

Four of my favorite foods:
1. chocolate
2. ice cream
3. pecan pie
4. poppyseed chicken 

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Amazing Race
2. Gray’s Anatomy
3. House
4. Numb3rs

Four Places I’ve lived:
1. Missouri
2. Arkansas
3. Wyoming
4. Colorado

Four places I’ve been on vacation:
1. Europe (Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, and Italy)
2. Australia and New Zealand
3. Alaska
4. DisneyWorld AND DisneyLand (but not the same trip)

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Yahoo! Mail
2. Heavenly Homemakers
3. Google Reader
4. Facebook

Four places I’d rather be right now:
1. playing with my nephews (I get to go home for their birthday party at the end of the month – yay!)
2. reading a book in bed
3. exploring someplace new
4. Panera (YUM!)

Today in church… 3 February 2008

we sang a song set to the tune of “It’s a Small World.” 

It took *every* ounce of my self-control for me to not burst out laughing during the song…  *TOO* funny!

A bit of good news… 24 January 2008

As some of you know, a couple weeks ago I was forced to move away from my beloved window, to a temporary location for about a week and a half, b/c my supervisor wanted one of our new hires (she was hired after temping for several months) to feel like a permanent part of our team.  Then on Tuesday, I had to move again to a “nice, private, more of an office, less of a cube-type area” (as so-described by my supervisor), because my temporary office was needed for another new hire…  However, this new area does not have a window.  Furthermore, it has three walls that are all a weird, mustard-y brown color, and the area is about 7′ by 10′.  Prior to my moving to this area, it was used for storage and file cabinets.  I call it “the cave.”  Not only is it window-less and cave-like, but I am also isolated from all of my co-workers…  Additionally, everyone who has come over to see my new diggs have incredulously asked ”this is your new area????”  They have all been sympathetic, and one gal who saw it for the first time today told me she would pray for me that I wouldn’t be too depressed by being there.  No, really, she did…  I promise I’m not making it up.

Obviously I am less than thrilled about working in the cave, and most of the folks in the office know this – they’ve asked, and I’ve answered honestly.  But, I’ve been trying to make the best of it, and my super has been pretty accommodating about finding a few of the extra furnishings that I’ve requested – a table for extra workspace, a bulletin board to post my calendar and other notes, etc. 

 Today, however, my super’s assistant asked if she could talk to me for a few moments…  She told me that she just wanted to make sure I know that I am a very vital piece of our team, and she wants to make sure that I’m happy.   She knows how unhappy I am in the cave, and told me not to get too settled in because I’ll be moving yet *again*…  My new cube is being vacated b/c a couple of gals from the office are switching to work from home FT.  And one of the gals who will be working from home has a cube that’s next to a window.  HOORAY!  The view from her window isn’t as good as the view from ”my window” but it’s a million times better than “the cave.”  I have to keep things on the down-low for a few weeks, but at least I know there is light (literally) at the end of the (figurative) tunnel. 

 The frustrating thing about all of this, though, is that if I could’ve just waited a week to move the first time (a point I was unable to argue with my supervisor b/c he left on vacation having told everyone involved about the move, except for yours truly), I wouldn’t have had to move at all b/c the gal who moved to my desk could have, instead, moved to the desk of the gal who was fired last week…  Everyone involved knows that this would have been the best plan of all, but once the serial moves began, there was no stopping them…  *sigh*  I have a picture of the view from “my window” but I think I’m going to wait to post it until I also have a photo of “the cave.”

I’m so excited… 21 January 2008

Some of you may remember the youtube video I posted last month  of the Twelve days of Christmas, sung by Straight No Chaser…  Well, last night I ordered the DVD of the full performance which the song is from.  It’s on backorder, and won’t arrive until mid-February, but I’m totally looking forward to its arrival!   

 I also found out that they are doing a performance in Denver next month and I’m going to try to snag a ticket.  Unfortunately, the original members (featured in the video) are no longer performing with the group, but I still think it’d be lots of fun.