Johnna Doe

I've only got a few to do this, but I would like to say that I've found my true love, at least for now. It's small, black, fits in my pocket, and has all my music on it. Well, almost all of it. I spent probably 8 or 9 hours ripping music on Tuesday, so I'm burned out on putting the remaining 20 or so on the computer to sync it. Those are the ones that I have to t-y-p-e in all the info for so they don't come up "unknown" on the player. This is not only the most expensive item I own (the Jeep is not in my possession today), but it's the coolest item I own. I decided to go ahead and spend every last penny I had on it (and it's warranty plan) on Monday because Best Buy has it on sale. Really, I would have rather had the white. It looks cleaner and you wouldn't be able to see my greasy thumb prints all over the key pad, but I couldn't find it for the same price anywhere out here in the boonies. Nobody had the white one out here, so I tried online and I couldn't find the white one for the same price online anywhere either. Price was what mattered since I already knew this one was what I wanted. Don't speak to me about iPods. For the past few days, "Johnna Doe" has been taking up my time. That's Mehsha's temporary name for it. Personally, I'm not one for naming objects, unless you call adding -ie to the end of anything naming it (i.e.- cellie, jeepie, etc.), but Mehsha wants to name it. Right now, it's genderless so she's just calling it "Johnna Doe"- a cross between John and Jane...to her anyway. If she doesn't come up with something better soon, it won't get named at all. There is this weird thought in my mind to call it yrollam, just because it looks the same and that became synonymous with MP3 players of this type a few months ago. That would be wrong, creepy, gross, etc., but it was just a weird feeling. It won't look like that one for long. I still have these cool fuzzy stickers and I'm debating on if I want to cover it with the cool stickers. That'll probably be a NO in the end since mom wants to make covers for it, and I know how bad stickers stick when they get hot. We're going to the fabric store to pick out what I want sometime next week. Maybe Monday. I'd rather make my own than pay for the ONLY one that they carry for it at Best Buy that's all black anyway and it's $30 or $40 bucks. It came with a little sack to keep it in, and that's doing the protecting job for now. I'm thinking light pink leather for the case...or RED leather. That decision will be made when I get there. Leopard print fabric would look totally awesome if mom did the whole front in plastic/vellum type stuff like she wants to. It's definitely worth the money. I don't care about all the specs or the rest of it, but I would like to say thank you to two readers who know who they are that helped me figure out MP3 players, and why this one fits what I wanted better than others.

So far, I'm still figuring out what all is on there, but one song did come up that I've been listening to only once a day that I had thrown in the trash. I can't find quite the suitable audio, so here come the lyrics:

"Unsent"

By Alanis Morissette

Dear Matthew: I like you a lot I realize you're in a relationship with someone right now and I respect that I would like you to know that if you're ever single in the future and you want to come visit me in California I would be open to spending time with you and finding out how old you were when you wrote your first song

Dear Jonathan: I liked you too much I used to be attracted to boys who would lie to me and think solely about themselves and you were plenty self-destructive for my taste at the time I used to say the more tragic the better the truth is whenever I think of the early 90's your face comes up with a vengeance like it was yesterday

Dear Terrance: I love you muchly you've been nothing but open hearted and emotionally available and supportive and nurturing and consummately there for me I kept drawing you in and pushing you away I remember how beautiful it was to fall asleep on your couch and cry in front of you for the first time you were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself what was wrong with me

Dear Marcus: You rocked my world you had a charismatic way about you with the women and you got me seriously thinking about spirituality and you wouldn't let me get away with kicking my own ass but I could never really feel relaxed and looked out for around you though and that stopped us from going any furter than we did and it's kinda too bad because we could've had much more fun

Dear Lou: We learned so much I realise we won't be able to talk for sometime and I understand that as I do you the long distance thing was the hardest and we did as well as we could we were together during a very tumultuous time in our lives I will always have your back and be curious about you about your career your whereabouts

I LOVE THAT SONG!

Internet revives the radio star

About two years ago, I discovered that Yahoo! had started something called LAUNCHcast. It was their online radio. You have to have an account with them for it to work, but on my old account, I had build up quite a collection of rated songs. Thursday, I got a link for Pandora, as most of you guys probably did too. I started playing with this yesterday and started finding some similarities and differences, lending me to prefer Pandora over LAUNCHcast.

The LAUNCHcast concept is similar to that of Pandora: creating specially formatted radio stations for you to listen to. With Yahoo's thing though, you create only one radio station especially formatted for you. First, you have to go though each main category of music like jazz, hip hop, rock, alternative, etc. If you click on a certain category, then it drops down and you get to chose from about 12 mainstream artists most closely associated with that genera. You can click them all or just one. It then creates your own station, so you have, like with mine, (Disclaimer: right now it doesn't really reflect my music tastes, but what I recently rated last time I listened) the genres listed are reggae, electronic/dance, and country. Not sure where those three came from. Usually it says something more like "adult alternative," rock, and jazz/ R & B. It plays songs from the major musicians that I picked and then it recommends songs from all the decades. Some obscure and others mainstream. Now let's break it down that you have the basics for Yahoo's radio.

First, lets go for the most annoying aspect of both of these online radio stations: advertisements. With Yahoo, it's overbearing. On your own personal radio station, you have unlimited skips until you get to 500 songs in a month, but about every 5 songs, you get a commercial, mostly advertising for you to upgrade and get a subscription. Sometimes it's for concerts in your area, or who ever is currently sponsoring the commercial free radio stations because there are two or three of those daily that have limited skips but no commercials. Right now it's Pepsi and Crest toothpaste. On the other radio stations, you get commercials about every 3 songs. (There are about 30 different stations that are open for listening to if you don't subscribe, but then it jumps up to about 70, or something close to that, if you subscribe.) So far, I've been listening to Pandora for about 3 or 4 hours and all I've gotten was one visual advertisement for Rock Star: Supernova. That sight was a little disturbing (Hello?! Who isn't creeped out by Tommy Lee?), but I have it minimized most of the time, so I don't see the visual ones. No audio advertisements at all. That was the biggest thing that won me over.

The rating system. Here, I have to say I favor Yahoo's way of doing things. They let you rate the artist, album, and song all differently. I find that very useful because for instance, with the White Stripes album White Blood Cells, that album isn't my ABSOLUTE favorite of theirs (Elephant!! Woot Woot!!), so I have 4 different levels of how I can rate all three different aspects of the song. I would give the band the fourth/highest level, the album the third/next highest level, and if the radio station was playing Aluminum, I would give it the lowest/first level because that song STILL gives me the jibblies after 7 years. Since I've rated all these things separately, I know that I'll still hear tons of the White Stripes, more of White Blood Cells, but I'll never have to fear hearing Aluminum and getting the jibblies again! Yay! The perfect situation. With Pandora, I've already had them play a song that I love love love by an artist that I'm not crazy about, so I had no choice but to click the thumbs up button for the song, but I have to wait for them to individually play each song from that artists and rate it when it comes along on the station that I created. That's one thing that I can do with Yahoo also. I can search for songs, albums, artists and rate them without ever having to hear them play. So I can completely avoid ever having Enrique Iglesias even though I rated Ricky Martin highly. Just kidding...maybe... If Pandora has that option, I just haven't found it yet in my site exploration. I know I can add artists to a station that I have already created, which I did. When I created my White Stripes station, I immediately added the Raconteurs and Led Zeppelin, just because they go together like peanut butter and jelly (just not around me).

As far as the music goes, on my personalized station, I was introduced to the New P's, The Jam, Blue Merle (one of my favorite "sounds like Coldplay" bands), etc., but it's not much of a let's look for underground artists kinda thing. So far, with Pandora, I've found at least 3 artists (one from each of the stations that I've created) that I've never heard of but have the major possibility of falling in love with. There are far more obscure artists on Pandora versus Yahoo, though Yahoo has a larger music database. This was the winning feature of Pandora. We all know I favor anything no one else has heard of. After all, doesn't it sound insanely cool when you get to say that the latest band you're into is either a local or a total unknown? Then you give the person a copy and spread the word and hope that they keep that indie spirit in their music. So far, the station that I favor is my White Stripes station, though I've heard of most of the artists that they are playing, maybe not the songs though. I also created one for Tori Amos, which we might as well rename "Women that play piano, kinda sing (but Tori can sing), and write angsty music" station, which is going to be nice when I'm in that kind of a mood. Yahoo offers a feature like this where you create different stations for different moods, but you have to pay $3 a month for that.

Over all, Pandora fits me better. More unknowns and less commercials. Their rating system could be better, but I'm not complaining for fear they might up the commercial playing. With my stations, I'm being very selective with what I add because I don't want to just throw all my stuff into one bin, and that's my solution for keeping things that I don't want played, not played. I'm trying to stay within the genera. I want my ducks scattered in this game.

Someone did something wrong and it wasn't ME!

French Exam right? I took care of problem #6 so that I could focus on this thing today. I was geared up for ace-ing this test, and I could have...had I had the right listening tape. There are five sections to a French exam. I decided I would get the culture, reading, writing, and grammar done before I did the listening part since it is usually the easiest for me. I finished all but the writing and went to do the ecoute (to listen) part and it was the wrong tape. The exam I was taking was French 11F. My teacher sent me the tape for French 12F exam, the second semester of my class. My proctor and I decided that she should call and we would reschedule. Now, I am brimming with self confidence. Not only do I now have more time to study, I know exactly what to study. There was one cultural question about Quebec and it was asking what would you want to visit if you went. Well, there was one place that I wasn't sure of the spelling of so now I can REALLY kick this exam's butt. Can anyone say "I'm getting an A on this test?" I can. I mentioned this to my proctor and she was like, "This is their problem and it's not like they are going to make up a different test for you just because you've seen this one, not unless that's what they usually do. It's their fault. I think they should wave your grade." AMEN!!! Then I'd have an A on the course anyway. Another burden lifted and some time for more studying. Oh yeah...

After being thoroughly happified first by seeing how easy the test was and then realizing that I now have more time to study, I decided to take a little joy ride down the county line. It only took about 30 minutes to get home instead of 5, but it was one of the most beautiful rides I've taken down some of those roads. While I was taking my exam, or the part that I could finish, it rained a medium summer rain. I decided to put in The New P's Electric Version, one of the few that I kept out when I put away my CDs. Instead of just taking 53 on back home, I went 441 to 186 to Cole Springs. Something dawned on me too driving down 186, it was: "Hey, I have a call there I need to make, and they're home NOW!!" I was completely out in the boonies and that was the first thought that came to mind. It tickled me, but then I thought, "YES!!! Pioneer spirit!!!" If I had not been in my very relaxed clothes (ie- Weezer shirt and oversized gauchos), I so would have stopped. I had the magazines ready and everything. The countryside had a slight misty feel about it. Things had cooled off, so I turned the air conditioning down low and put down the windows. The outside smelled good, and that's a rarity considering how many cows and horses are out here when it's hot. Going down Cole Springs, there is a stretch of land that has a few barns and a large pond. It almost had close to a fog over it and it looked so peaceful with the cows laying out there. Wish I had a camera then. I've never seen that road look more serene. I slowed way down since no one was behind me and I turned the music down for the effect. It was one of the most satisfying joy rides I've had since I got my license. As I flew (literally- the tires weren't on the ground) down my favorite curvy road with the windows down and the music up as far as it goes, I got a few honks and smiles and it rocked just as much as The New P's do. The only thing that kinda disappointed me was that last Friday I blew the dash speaker in Jeepie so the windshield didn't vibrate like it usually does. All in all, I was very satisfied.

Then something wrong again, but this time, it's not really wrong, but it is me. I went to pick up Mehsha because I needed to talk to her and help her to understand what's going on. She's still mad at me as high heaven and started crying when she got in the car with me. No talking happened. I hope she will eventually understand, but I can't worry about her because what she's worried about doesn't matter since she has the wrong idea. That's Mehsha for you though. In picking her up from school, I found out why she wants an L.L. Bean backpack and started wearing ribbons in her hair. There's no variety in the girls at that school. Even less with the guys. The monotony was depressing. Please keep Mehsha in mind. I never thought it would be this hard on her.

Problem #6

I would like to take a moment to say BOO-YAH!!!!!! to problem #6. Thank you. I have a French exam in 2 and a half hours and I now have the confidence that I'm going to smoke this thing's butt. I'm feeling much better. It feels like a big burden has been lifted and I'm feeling the most carefree I've felt in a long time (with as much as I still have to do). I'm thinking bloggie won't be left behind. It is supposed to come with me through good and bad right? Come along bloggie, we've got some things to do. Au revoir is right Jules, but I prefer A bientôt (see you soon).

When the going gets rough

I'm taking some time off from the real world, or more like the life I created for myself for the past seven months. Blogger might end up being included. I've asked for time off, and my mind said it was OK and that I need to focus on school and service anyway. Plus there are some friends that have been getting the back burner that are worth catching up with since another one will be pushed aside for a while until I can figure out how I feel. If I don't update, there are probably a lot of reasons influencing that so don't push an update. That probably means I'm not in a sharing mood. I have a French exam tomorrow, and a piano lesson that's going to be rough for certain reasons, so this is going to be it for a while. Love you all and I hope you understand.

Weekend Update

Even still more job perks. Contessa's dad just got a new computer and they have high speed so I don't have to leave this glorious privledge behind when I up and go to "work" anymore. Now I can be just like P. June and Poly. Sit at the computer during work. And the sweet thing is it's positioned so that all I have to do is turn around and I can see the couch and... TADA! there she is. It was also more than nice what he did for me Friday. He understood completely when I asked to get off by 3:30 on Friday for a much needed weekend away from problems 1-5. He did even better than 3:30. I only had to watch Contessa for 15 minutes and then he was there to get her, which was better than I thought because it took over 2 hours to get to GSAM this past Friday. Traffic is a foreign idea to me now, but there is plenty of it once you get past the little city of Duluth! From Abbots Bridge all the way to Haynes Bridge was traffic and stop lights as far as the eye could see. Despite the tiring traffic that dominated Friday, the whole weekend turned out great, but of course, I was insanely goobly from the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that I ate too many of. The movie is now one of my favorites. The GSAM group watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I LOVED it for so many reasons. I'd like to get my own edited copy. (Aww, this brings back memories...there's a cat in my lap. My cat.) Saturday was a treat except for the ride home to the other O.C. and the car sickness that was making calls and trying to read the Bible in the morning. We (Polyglot, I Dunno, Mehsha, and I) watched another good movie. "When A Stranger Calls." All in all, I was more than satisfied with what I took part in this weekend.

I would also like to say thanks to all that read the "blank post" and thanks for those who have offered help and support. I just needed to get it all down. Just to let y'all know, this week is off to a slow, but better start. Thanks so much.

Fakin' It

I'm staying away from anything of the thought provoking sort, though I've done more than my share of thinking this week in trying to figure out something to do about Problems 1-6. 6 decided to rear it's nasty self at me last night and I was up later than late. (No, problem 6 has nothing to do with Mehsha. We're doing better, since she's not here to fight with any more.) Both P. June's and Poly's posts weren't really helping me be distracted from what I've got going on. Remembering the past isn't good when you're trying to deal with the present. I've been trying to keep busy and forget about them. School has become a welcome distraction for me. I've been working on my favorite class, 5 Novels of Change. Right now, I'm living on the Mississippi instead of in the other O.C.

Skeeter and I have been bonding since Mehsha has been at school. He's a poodle, on the very small side, so he's naturally needy. He's bred to be one person's companion, but Skeet is sweet to all. Hands down, he's THE best dog we've ever had, besides Sam, but he couldn't come in the house. (That was our 200 lb. English Mastiff. He was that big too.) He's always preferred mom over me, but since yesterday, I've had little clicking paws following me around. It's really easy to hold him. It's like holding a baby, but I don't know of a single baby that I've held that only weighed 4 lbs. Except Skeeter continuously smells like dog. Babies smell bad every once in a while, but then they smell good again. I may bathe our little 2 year old today.

Anyway, piano lesson today. Wait...yeah, let's just skip straight to today's lesson. No wait, well, I'll share what I found out yesterday about my piano with someone eventually because I think it's interesting. Oh heck, YOU WILL ALL KNOW. I found the shrillest notes on my piano. The second highest A, and the highest D,E, and F. They are so shrill that they ring back with an extra tone, which may just be my ears. I'm supposed to have "perfect" hearing. Either it's so bad that I'm missing something when the note plays or either they are so good, I'm picking up something that most people don't hear. I'm surprised that my piano is still intact after I was banging on it yesterday. I was just short of taking the thing apart, or busting it to pieces. I found some tape on a key that was sticking. One of the lower B's. It played much better after I removed the tape. How did tape get on a key? The same way paper "snow" got under all of the keys, Barbie took a fall down a (never) ending pit, and the way some of the keys now have red and green accents. At least she's creative and imaginative. Mom beat her butt when she drew on the piano. It hasn't come off in 11 years. Wow. 11 years feels like a long time...hard to believe it's been that long. Today, with one less sticking key, I had the COOLEST piano lesson I've ever had. I took piano for 5 years, 5 years ago, and I know I liked doing it then, but I have a better appreciation for what I'm learning now. With the added dedication that I'm putting into my lessons, we're flying through stuff that took me 4 years to do. Some of that may be the prize at the end of book 4. By that time, Brother Piano Teacher said that we can do TORI AMOS!!! In my free time, I've been piddling with "Pretty Good Year," (if you have this one Poly, I don't know about it. The live improv before sounds easy in a cutesy way.) but not seriously enough to have any of it where it sounds cohesive, except maybe the first four measures. My favorite lesson until today's was the one where there sheet music book for Under the Pink came in and my piano teacher was quite intrigued, so he stayed 30 minutes longer than we pay him for and played "Pretty Good Year," "Bells for Her," "Cornflake Girl," and "Over It." I was enthralled that day. Humming along. (I can't sing. Especially not like Tori.) That was an exciting lesson. Today beat it. Just incase you haven't been reading the blog from the beginning, which most of you have, I LOVE LOVE LOVE David Berkeley. Mom had quite the engaging conversation with him the first time we saw him. We (as in mom and I) decided that we had seen David before and all we could come up with was Whole Foods. If he wasn't married, I'd be preaching to him for more than one reason. A few weeks back, Poly told me he had gotten the sheet music for basically my favorite song of David's, "Fire Sign." I printed it out and showed Brother Piano Teacher, and he started showing me how to play it. The first three pages are very simple to play, but then it gets to the part where it only gives the melody that his voice is making and the chords that he's strumming on the guitar. After all, the sheet music is written for guitar. That was probably three or four lessons ago. He asked me if I wanted him to look for a book that showed the chords and how to break them up for each scale so that I could break up the guitar chords and play the rest of the song. He said that people that play piano in bars and stuff usually carry around books called Fake books. He explained that Fake Books just have the chords for songs. They are about 1000 pages or something close to that with popularly requested songs. If they tried to put it down note for note, the book would be too heavy to carry around. People that play this way are "faking it" in a sense because all they have are the chords and they are breaking them up so where it sounds right and putting notes inbetween, thus, why they call them Fake Books. Hyped up once again because I was going to play something that I love, I enthusiastically said yes, please do. I love the piano and I love playing, but what I'm learning in the lesson books feels perfunctory and I'm not into it as much as playing something that I have a passion for. Today, he brought the book with all the chords in it. First of all, it's a new book, so I'm going to be excited. Second of all, he said to play the songs I was assigned last week and then we would look at the chords book and try and break up the song. Was I thrilled? NAW! That was the happiest I've been all week. I played the songs and then all we did for the rest of the hour was listen to "Fire Sign" and break up the chords. He did it first and in a surprised manner, I sat down after he told me to try it. There's not a way that faking it can be taught, so he showed me and helped me along. Each person is going to think that a different arrangement of a chord sounds better than another one, so it's the basic concept that can be taught instead of the notes. It's completely different from reading notes off a page. It is one step closer to playing by ear, which is something I hope to be able to do once I'm perfect. Since we didn't get to do anything out of my lesson books, my assingment for the week is to work on breaking up the chords so where I like the way they sound and incorporate the melody within the chords. Next week, I show him what I've got and he'll help me out if I've picked out a chord arrangement and there is an easier way. I'm learning how fake it, but even better; I'm learning how to play "Fire Sign." Sweet beans.

Five, Six, Pick-up sticks

I was cold feeling inside and out all day. A hoodie and blue jeans was my attire today and I was still cold, and it has nothing to do with the carton of ice cream I hugged at lunch. Got a blister playing the piano today...somehow. It's on the base of my right thumb. How you ask? I have no earthly idea. I've got a piano post for tomorrow though, so I'll save the other things I was going to say for then. I watched the pilot of "The Office" today. I bought it on DVD (the whole first season) at Target for $17. It was on price cut. Did lots of laughing during lunch.

Our house guest has been here three whole days now, or three days and three nights. She's here for pioneer school. I'll call her Big Affie. Her name is spelled the same way as my first name and we have the same first and last initials, only she's older by two years. That's her only qualification to get the suffix "big." She's actually smaller than Mehsha. It's hard now when someone just calls out "Affie" and two come. Maybe I should actually go by Affie for the next two weeks and make life a little easier. Having her here is great. I'm getting to know her inside out, but I'm not being easy to get to know this week (i.e.- white post). Thank goodness she's staying two weeks. I wish she could stay longer. Really, I am learning a lot about her though and she definitely doesn't act 19 either, or at least not all the time. If you've met her, you know that I look two or three years her senior. It's so much fun. I love having guests. Mom said that she wanted to have five kids, and she would have had it been possible, and ya know, I don't think I would mind as much as I thought I would. Since she's been here, we (me, Big Affie, and Mehsha) have all become serious pick-up stick players. I'm in line for the next challenge. I never played much when I was little, though the Greenparents had a nice set that has come to be a dilapidated set after four grandkids. It was occasional, just like for Big Affie. We have a set right now and Mehsha pulled them out at the mention of them on a television show and Big Affie made a nostalgic comment and they decided to start playing. After I finished getting ready, I too, joined in. Last night, I lost both games I played. Tonight, I'm the undefeated champion, but of course, there are only three of us playing so it's not that hard to be undefeated or defeated for that matter. You get really into it. It takes a lot of concentration to pick out a stick that you think won't make any of the others move and then try and figure out a process to get it out of the pile without screwing the rest of it up. Very complicated. Mehsha started making piles. Hard piles. And the game will literally take an hour or so to finish. So in efforts to stay away from the real world today after I blankly spilled some of my beans on the blog floor (which set my nerves on edge, but felt a little better just knowing someone can see it if they wanted to), I looked up pick-up sticks more for origin of the game, not so much for the name. Most everyone knows that rhyme and the line goes "five, six, pick-up sticks. Seven, eight, made a mistake..." or wait, is that last part from a double-dutch rhyme? I think it is. (I used to kick butt at double-dutch too, before they took recess away from us.) Yeah it is. The real nursery rhyme goes this way: One, two, buckle my shoe Three, four, shut the door Five, six, pick up sticks Seven, eight, lay them straight Nine, ten, a big fat hen Eleven, twelve, men must delve Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty ...(I didn't know from 11-20) That's beside the point. The game started in China. All I have to say is: duh. Didn't all the cool stuff start in China? Or almost maybe. The Arabs did have the "0" concept, but they started algebra too, so that cancels out the good thing. In China, sticks of this sort were used for divination and then it became a form of a gambling game. That's kinda what out version is, since it has point scores for each color stick. From China it went to Korea and Japan and then across the Bering Strait, like everyone and everything. I was also surprised to find that they were originally called "jerk straws" then "jack straws," as well as pick-up sticks. And I never thought about it before, but Jenga is a form of pick up sticks. So, I'm being called for a game now and I'd like to defend and keep my title, so I'll stop there about something everyone else probably thinks is boring.

Blobber

Isn't he eerily cute? He's clear and nameless right now. Soon he'll be clear and with a name. P. June put one on her blog so I hope she doesn't mind me being so poser. All you see at the bottom of my blog now are these jumping eyes and a little bitty square with my page stats. If you click on my friend here, you go flying to spacefem.com where the totally useless quiz is. The box goes to some page that tells you I had a visit from someone in Spain to my blog (I suppose by way of H'n'B's blog, since we're all linked together). I'll post something of a different flavor later, but things won't settle down in my head right now enough to think about what I want to post. We have a house guest and lots of other things going on right now. This is my escape time. Shhh...mom thinks I'm writing essays. I have to get away from the bunnies and find a switch.

It's there, but don't bother with it

I prefer not to post about these sorts of things [The ISFJ is not likely to express their feelings.], but Easel isn't home (well, she comes home tonight and hopefully we can have a nice long talk) and I don't really have the time (and nobody else does) to sit and chat on the phone and tell someone all that's going on, and few would know how all of this is actually affecting me. [ISFJs...When down on themselves or under great stress, the ISFJ begins to imagine all of the things that might go critically wrong in their life.] I'm going to go at this by introducing the problems I feel I can share starting with those of the most importance because there are two that I probably won't share. If you do decide to highlight and read, NONE of this leaves the blog.

Problem #1: Mehsha returned to school today. It was dad's final decision, but I think it was made for the wrong reasons. He says that he wants to finish paying for her braces first. Today, I finally heard that if Laurel Springs turns out to be the better choice for her, come winter, she'll be outta there. So, in a selfish manner, I'm hoping really hard that it doesn't work out. Yesterday we went shopping for her school supplies. Anyone can tell when I'm upset about something. There are usually the beginnings of tears in my eyes, I want to be by myself, I'm short in conversation...etc. In Target, that's kinda hard to do, but I spent all my time wandering the opposite side of the store and only met up with them at the check out counter (where I saw a sophomore in college that I know, so we chatted a moment...it was awkward). She and I have been fighting (mostly about this) since Sunday. We had quite the fight and I was far more emotional that usual. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes, but it never feels right when you cry. Nobody is pretty when they cry either, so it's just not natural. But I don't feel this is right for Mehsha [You deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system.]. She's doing this for three reasons she could give me, and she left one out that we all know is the real reason. 1)She wants to please dad. Response: That's all fine and dandy, and it's what she should do. Children be obedient to parents, even if you don't agree with what they are saying (and even if it has nothing to do with you, ie.-me). She told me that she didn't really want to go back to school, which brings me to her next reason. 2) She is worried about the money situation and wants to do her part in helping out. Mom said that the $2000 that goes for her schooling is made by her working and that there's nothing she needs to worry about because school is a totally separate expense than the others we have. 3) New clothes and a cell phone. Dad says the cell phone ain't happenin' (thank goodness), but the new clothes she's all geared up for. We went shopping yesterday for a "back to school outfit" at the mall. Of course, it wasn't cheap. (I got this insanely soft hoodie for the cocoon feeling it gave off. It gave me a warm, cozy, calm feeling, but it didn't last.) WE ALL KNOW THE REAL REASON THOUGH! Social. Life. That's what she missed most and was the only reason why she has wanted to go back. Homeschooling she loved. The lack of association she hated. Yesterday after her orientation, she came home talking about all the clubs that this school offers. Over. My. Dead. Body. I know what happens when you join a club. I was in a few. That's NOT what she needs AT ALL. As you can see I'm still semi-upset about this, but the family is coming to terms on all of this and I'm losing my self-righteous attitude about it all, especially now that I've heard there is a strong possibility that if she blows 'em outta the water, she's going back to Laurel Springs. She'll kick that school's butt. I know she will. She may be a smart aleck, but she's also genius smart. She would have been gifted certified if she could sit still long enough to take the test. That's what I'm hoping happens. They aren't going to take her out if she doesn't like it though. I do think she'll be back next year though, in Laurel Springs. I'll be done and we'll be settled in a house, which brings me to the next problem.

Problem #2: Housing. Right now, we are in the tiny rental. Both mom and dad are getting fed up with looking and are discussing just staying, which would be fine if we had an office, but we don't and being here and the fact that we have come to love having guests about the house, it's come to our attention that a fourth bedroom/office is a necessity. What we need and what we are used to and what we would like to do are all out of our price range. The other OC is expensive. They think very highly of their county, for good and bad reason. This county is 98% white and they want it kept that way. You aren't allowed you put a mobile home on any more property now. It's a law. The existing ones can stay, but no new ones. What we came from in Snellville would run us around $400K out here. We've found the perfect house. No renovations necessary, unlike the one with the hot tub and putting green that would need a lot of help (plus that one now has a contract on it). The one we want is huge. It's bigger than our old one, but we would like to finish a basement apartment for our special pioneer out here and there's still room for in-laws, if that becomes necessary. It's got FIVE bedrooms! Master, Mehsha's, mine, guest, and office. The kitchen is wonderful and it's already got hardwood floors on most of the main floor. I'm in love. Anything else we have looked at since then has been "ehm..." to me. We put a lowball offer in and the builder countered. Dad spent three days reworking our budget and he figured we can do it. Then he and mom decided that they didn't want to be SO tied down and dad still wants to go to Europe next year and buy me a car. First of all, Europe has been talked about since they came home from Paris...ah, 15 years ago. I don't think we're ever going. Dad can't sit still with a car long enough for us to be slightly stable economically. In my 17 years of being with my father, we have had 13 cars. I think we've had more cars than stray dogs take up at our houses. Me+car= not urgent. I'm fine staying home if I don't have a vehicle, except my job kinda makes things a little difficult. We have three vehicles, but one is older than I am. That Ranger isn't going to quit, it just lacks A/C and dad doesn't have A/C all day long and if I have Jeepie...he's rollin' the redneck way: windows down, rear-view mirror missing, dented side. Whole nine yards. I'm not allowed to drive the hazard vehicle, though I love the way the treadless tires ride on dirt roads. All it needs is an "I Heart Watkinsville" bumpersticker, and I gotta get to Bell's to get one. I could talk about the car situation all day because it's been a stress factor too. As much as the housing situation is NOTHING I have control over, it's given off more stress than the things I can control.

Problem #3: One of the few things I find true joy in doing has become a "situation." For about six months, I've had a plan in mind that I was going to start continuous auxiliary in September and go on the regular pioneer list after six months. No big right? Well, String-bean Andy quit his job to finish school and will be continuous auxiliary as well. He started this month. Andy's mom has become my service buddy and she's going to be his too. This is horribly obvious to see where this is going. Friday, Sis. Circuit overseer's wife came out in service with us in the other OC and before she left with Eliza in the afternoon, she mentioned that I needed to be extra careful about what I wore etc. with a young brother pioneering as well. That's just dandy. First of all, Andy is NO WHERE NEAR someone I would consider dating or getting the least bit involved with. All adults say that things like that change when you spend a lot of time with someone, but honestly, Andy and I have NOTHING in common. Not a single thing. He can't tell, but most of my comments about the things he finds enjoyable are so loaded with sarcasm it's gushing out the sides. Andy and I do talk about his brother a lot though because Andy still has definite ideas about his brother and me, as well as his brother and his girlfriend. Second, Andy has a very serious girlfriend. They have plans for marriage in one to two years. It's gonna get sticky. I'm not going to bother to separate Problem #4 because it fits so well here: Deborah Clasky has my life planned, spiritually speaking. Having someone as enthused about this as I am is wonderful, but I hate to disappoint her if I find that I can't do more than 50 hours a month. This problem is on the wane because I can work with this one and it's not so urgent to be dealt with and I know here, I'm going to do my thing, although what Deborah wants does matter quite a bit to me. She and I have become close during these past seven months.

Problems #5 & 6 are on a non-share basis. Easel knows about problem 6 and what it's done to me, but I'd prefer if she was the only one at this point because I know what I should do about it, but it's not what I feel like doing. Problem #5 is only a cautionary problem at this point. It maybe a full blown red alert by the end of this year and things will have to change drastically, again. I've never done to well with drastic change. Things need to be slower. Less stress.

Supersloth: My Hero

My new favorite villian. Forget the Riddler. Supersloth is my hero. The webbie is here (gotta give the guy credit for such a genius villian). Sleeping in a cape? Brilliant.

Where the hell is Matt

I've got this strange desire to post about Precal and how controversial my book is versus my learning guide and how I think I'm going to have to get a tutor...etc., but that's pretty boring stuff (like I post things of interest anyway). What I want to post are some links that Jules set me about traveling Matt. Everyone was quite jealous about what he's gotten to do. His story can be found here. Part of it starts to sound like a personals add. First, it starts about how he was traveling after he quit his job in Australia and started wandering the world with the money he had. He set up a website for friends and family to keep up with him. Friends began to suggest that he dance in the places he visited. This year, Stride gum paid for him to revisit 39 countries in on all 7 continents for 6 months...to DANCE! in a Napoleon Dynamite fashion. Wait, that's a lie. Napoleon dances better. I'd dance like an idiot if my expenses were paid. Heck, any dancing I do is idiotic. There is even a link to "Meet Matt" at the Stride website. Towards the end of the "About" section of the website, there are phrases like this: "Matt is left-handed," and "When Matt was younger, he could hang seven spoons on his face at once. Sadly, puberty made Matt's face less conducive to spoon-hanging." Then there are other striking attributes to make him even more irresistible like, "Matt has a little piece of extra cartilage sticking out on the rim of one ear and a little hole in the same place on the other ear. Matt has no idea why this is the case," or "Matt is very good with figures and wishes people asked him to multiply things more often," and we cannot forget "Matt has never lost a staring contest." Now, to see Matt dance:

Where the Hell is Matt?

Link-amarinka dinky dink

OK, I haven't tested them, but they are for mostly my benefit so that I can keep up with everyone. I'm a little slow in remembering. I must have over 200 bookmarks so there's no way I'll stick 'em there because I'll just forget about it then. I look at my blog daily, so I'll look at all those daily now too. This way the only way it would work out, sad to say. If anyone has a problem being up there, tell me and I'll do something about it...like remove you or something. Just lemme know if it bothers you.

Quiz I liked

I hope I only post this one. Mehsha's blog so far is just these and H'n'B has been posting a few. I wonder what the choices were? This one I'd like to agree with because I like the way it sounds. My favorite color is purple though.

You Are Navy Blue

You're a true adventurer. You constantly find yourself drawn to new experiences, people, and places. Sometimes you feel quite scattered and bored. If something exciting isn't going on, you feel a bit lost.

What Color Blue Are You?

Bottle Caps and Peppermint Wrappers

I was so tired after riding with Deborah Clasky this afternoon in service. String-bean Andy was about to tell her to pull over so that he could drive. It was all I could do to keep from throwing up after the first 30 minutes. Fought with the left van door today. Andy was saying jokingly that I spend too much time with his mother (Deborah Clasky) because she seems to be rubbing off on me. It did make for quite the relaxing and reinvigorating 2 hour nap though.

Funny story from afternoon service. I met back at 12 and went out in the afternoon with Biscuit, Andy, Deborah, and another sister and her mom. Biscuit, Andy, and I tend to carry on our own separate conversation from the other three van riders. Andy went to a Bible study with a brother in our hall earlier that morning. He said that in a slightly randomN way, the brother brings up Jammies, who is Andy's older brother. With little segway, he says, "When Affie moved in, I had it all worked out in my mind. She was going to fall in love with Jammies, they were going to date and get married. I had it all worked out. She was perfect." HAHA! OK, there's a lot that most of my readers don't know about this situation, but the moment I moved in, he was moving in on me. Freakiest part about it, he's 9 years my senior, and I'm a minor. That wasn't stopping him at all. It's a sticky situation and now that he has a girlfriend (Feather), people have been coming up to me telling me I'm off the hook. One of the younger married sisters in my hall came up to me when Feather was visiting a few months back and says, "When you moved in, it was like the fresh meat radar went up and he was ready for the kill. You're off the hook now!" Mind you, I spent a lot of time in service with him, but that was never my doing. We did one social activity a piece with each other, and that was too much. Andy and Biscuit actually started forming a wall around me at the meetings back in April or May. He's still a little creepy around me though...NEXT SUBJECT!

The Cheat is about to get fixed the old fashioned way. I'm cutting it ALL OFF. He's peed on my bed 4 times this month. When in a frenzy to get to service on time, you don't have a spare 10 minutes to take off a feather comforter, 2 sheets, and a mattress cover, which is why I was late this morning, not counting the cop on Loop 10 with his radar gun out. I was doing the speed limit. Was anyone else? NO! It's 55 and you can legally go 60 without getting pulled over since it's an urban interstate. Everyone else was doing 70 and drastically slowed down to 45. That left me with no choice but to slow down or rear end someone. It was mom's SUV and I was already late for service. There was no question. That whole bunch of crap just frustrates me that they have to slow down SO much. Anyway, on to what I promised.

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you lovable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

That's what I got whatever day it was that I took the Sesame Street Personality Quiz. H'n'B proceeds to make a comment to see more posts about pigeons and my bottle cap collection. I'm allergic to pigeons (and there aren't that many out here, surprisingly), though we did have a quail for a little while back at the old house...among other odd birds (i.e.- Hawk, Crow- aka Edgar Allan Crowe, etc.). The hawk is actually a funny story for another time, and if you know my father, you KNOW it's a funny story. Now that I think about it, the crow is funny too. Dad was dead serious about training him to be a house pet when he brought him home, but back to what I was saying. Bottle caps are actually something I was collecting for a while. Of course I collect some normal things like books, CDs, clothes, purses, shoes, old magazines, photographs but I also have eclectic collections of other items like PENS OF ALL KIND!!!! This passion was recognized in the 7th grade when I realized I had about 20 more writing utensils in my backpack than everyone else, and there were lots of pretty colors. If you come in my room, I have them in another one of my collections. Plastic restaurant cups. I have one that has a chain of restaurants on it in Myrtle Beach, a few Relay for Life ones, one from Brookgreen Gardens, etc. Another obsession from when I was little: Hello Kitty. That probably has to do somewhat with my Peter Pan complex that I never grew out collecting Sanrio stuff. My current favorite is Charmmy Kitty , but she's in close running with Deery Lou (trust me, he's very cute and is much cuter on the front of my meeting notebook). So I collect some off the wall things, oh and T.G.I.Friday's peppermint wrappers. Ya know, the ones that you get on the way out of the door because you know your breath smells so bad from eating those onions on your Jack Daniels burger. They have the funniest saying on the back of the wrappers. 2 of my personal favs are, "Your friends will thank you for this," and "Remember, you're not alone." I've got 7 or 8 of them. As Mehsha said, I wouldn't be able to find most of my collection. She's right because she took it. After all, isn't that her job as a little sister? *smiles deviously while plotting revenge on her Russian dictionary* I was able to find "2." It's actually 3, but 2 are the same. The 2 that are the same are my "Smirnoff ICE" blinky bottle caps. They are actually pins that I got from Taco Mac when that was the beer of the night. There are batteries on the back and it powers a blinky red light on the front with the "Smirnoff ICE" label. OK, those two are close to my favs. My favorite one, I don't have any more. I bought a Mexican "Coke" in a glass bottle in Camden, SC and it didn't look different, but the Coke tasted GREAT, so I kept the bottle cap. That one was probably the first, since I remember getting that one a looong time ago. The other one I found was a "Cutolo Rionero" water one. It's Italian bottled water and there's a very ornate water fountain on it in green. There were more, but I assume they have been scattered. Precal is menacingly calling my name and I'm over due for finishing the first lesson, so I'm out.

Job Perks

It may not be The Office, but it pays well enough for as little as I work and how little expenses I incur monthly (except for those texting charges). It's babysitting, so it's no big deal. All I do is pick her up from school and sit with her for about six hours a week, it's just solid days now with a flat pay. Since I've never tried out the list button on my blog window, I'm gonna click it and see where we go from there.

PROS:

• Free food. There's never a lack for junk food at their house. What more could you want besides...
• Free cable. Contessa has more channels than I do, and that's a lot of channels.
• That's where my most recent cat lives now, and she still loves me. Doesn't everyone remember Kitty? AKA- Tiger-Lilly fandango-smeller samurai "kitty." Just rolls off the tounge, don't it?
• I get along with Contessa, who may become the Burger Queen or Chicken Nuget and she's so easy to watch. She fits in well with the family.
• In two months (including this one), I'll have enough money for my very own MP3 player.

CONS:

• The deal is for Mondays and Fridays. Mondays are fine. That's not my service day and I don't have a massive school subject scheduled for that day. Fridays though...that puts a cramp in any chance of Mehsha and I getting to GSAM once a month and Friday is my well established service day.
• Contessa knows it well, and expressed it outward today. She can't sit still for longer than 5 minutes. That'll put a cramp in my studying while I'm watching her.

I get paid well for as little as I do, but if this interferes with getting to GSAM once a month, something might have to change. Gas prices are now a clincher in getting up there as well. GSAM is enjoyable and I don't get to go often in the first place. We'll see how this works out. The steady income is an attractive lure, but Good Soup is an enriching experience.

Digital (Cable) Get Down

I'm so lonely! Both my best friends leave me on the exact same week! I haven't gotten a txt in...a little over 24 hours. Thing about that is, it's perfect since I'm already about 150 texts over my prepaid limit. Translation: They better stay outta town or my bill is going to be a heckuva lot more than last month. My bill last month was somewhere around $20 over what it should have been. Plus, I'm having to pay for the "over" charges this time. Texting is just so convenient! I can carry on a conversation that I really don't have time to sit and have over the phone. Dad asked me if I could learn to live without texting. Umm...NO! I'd rather pay for the ones I go over with. It's also perfect for them to be gone as well because I've got to get things done! Last Monday and Tuesday, although I got a French lesson done, (All of French is done now. YAY!) I didn't retain as much of that lesson because I was on and off the phone and texting with Easel. I've got Precal to do and a "real job" that starts today. I love texting though. End of story.

Friday morning service was hilarious. Slushie cup symphonies with Biscuit Hayes and String-bean Andy. I think we just about drove my service mom (whom I'll call Deborah Clasky) crazy, but it was her fault that she didn't have enough gas to do the driving territory. It was TOO HOT to do anything but on Friday though. There were fights with the car door and getting "shot at" for looking in the pit. It's crazy to think I didn't place anything! There's been talk around here of moving back close to Poly's side of town, (Ick. Poly's not ick; his side of town is.) but it's the backwoods, redneck moments like these that make me never want to leave again. Who knows what the other O.C. will be like in 10 years though? This post was supposed to be about our digital cable, but look what happened there. Honest though, I'm getting to it. In fact, lets do that now.

Digital Cable. A blessing from the technology industry. I was the only one that knew how to work the whole shebang, and I wasn't even here for the briefing of how to use the set up. Leave it to my dad, the king of spontaneity, to get digital cable and not tell the family. This is the man that gets up one Saturday morning in February and decides that the family needs to go to the beach and loads up the car for the weekend and goes to Panama City. He's also the one that whenever we are in Florida, he says he knows some short cut and we drive for 3 hours looking for something and then the highway just ends. I've seen lots of Florida being with my dad. Anyway, Mehsha and I went to a get together after service Saturday. Mom went to run errands. We all didn't get back til around 5 PM, and Mehsha immediately starts screaming. There was much excitement. There are a zillion channels now. Dad stayed home because the cable guy was coming. This morning I spent like an hour watching VH1 classic. All they were playing were videos from the 80s. Cindy Lauper, The Motels, The Clash...it was glorious. I was surprising myself when I knew most of the words to the majority of the videos. Then there's MTV Hits. All videos. All the time. The way MTV used to be. Digital cable is wonderful, except there are now FIVE clickers to keep up with. Two are currently M.I.A. And of course there's Nicktoons 1 and 2. Guess what they show on Nicktoons? Just guess. REN AND STIMPY! Seriously, at three years old, this was my favorite TV show. I would watch Sesame Street and Mister Rogers in the morning. Then when dad got home at night, we would watch Ren and Stimpy together. I can't wait for it to come on again. That's why I loved the Angry Beavers. It reminded me so much of Ren and Stimpy. I'm such a cartoon junkie, but that's P. June's brother's fault. Digital cable's going to be the death of my imagination. Kiss it good-bye now.

Chocolate covered commercial

Two days in a row! I hope this pleases one specific reader that says that once a week isn't enough to fufill the needs of my blog. I did forget how much I loved this thing. It's quite the affair we have going on here. I was thinking about posting something deep, but since both H'n'B and Poly beat me to posting and they both did deep stuff, I'm going for the other angle. Brain sludge...scrumptious brain sludge.

Now, I don't know if everyone knows, but I'm allergic to chocolate (among 30,000 other things- but not air [AirSupply either] or TooL). I was craving some of Edy's Double Fudge Brownie ice cream. This is THE best chocolate ice cream that has ever graced this earth. It puts Haagen-Dazs to shame, and believe me, I'm not picky when it comes to ice cream. (I am allergic to just plain 'ol ice cream though- milk products, but not lactose intolerant. That's different.) This ice cream though, I crave it occasionally, usually just every two months, but I only get it about every four since I'm SO VERY allergic to this ice cream. Last night, I had my first helping of the fresh carton (and I'm not one for small helpings, especially now that I've got my appetite back). Of course, I started having an allerigc reaction almost immediately because I haven't had chocolate in a few months. A chocolate ice cream reaction is a little interesting since I start sneezing from the chocolate, have an asthma attack if the ice cream is too cold and I eat it too fast, plus itchy arms. It irritates my excema, but that may be oversharing-I'll take my chances. What would really be oversharing is if I told you exactly what's in chocolate that I'm allergic to. It's not always an immediate reaction, but it was this time because there wasn't already some previous reaction to chocolate in my system. It usually takes about a week to get an allergen like chocolate (others like chocolate: cheese, milk, ice cream in general, etc.) out of my system, but it has been well over a week like I said. Here's the coincidence part. I'm sitting down to watch shark week with my mishpocha (but heavens no! not on the white couch), and a commercial comes on while I'm eating my very chocolatey ice cream and it's a confusing one. Confusing as in you have no clue what might be about when it starts and you're left kinda stunned at the end and all you can say is, "Ooookaaayyyy..." afterwards. A lot like the feeling after you see one of Sprite's new ad campaign commercials and if you haven't seen one, well, you're missing out on a very weird experience. This wasn't a Sprite one. This was for the new LG "Chocolate" phone. It was talking about how it's a V-cast phone and it's got a picture/video camera. Then it says, "It's sweet," or something to the "sweet" extent. Not quite sure why they called it "chocolate," but I bet someone thought of the ad campaign first. In an article I read, it said that they are already available in Korea and are being marketed as a Valentine's Day gift. I can see that. (Boyfriend goes up to girlfriend, "I got you some chocolate for Valentine's." Girlfriend: "Oh..." since she got chocolate the year before, but it soon changes to surprise to see her new phone.) They're going to make a fortune with that since most of us are slaves to advertising. I know there are a few commercials that have made me go out and buy the product, i.e.- Barbie in Swan Lake or Flinstone Gummie vitamins. There was one phrase that the commercial used and it was, "Carry chocolate in your pocket." Perfect, they've created a "chocolate" that won't melt from body heat. In a weird way, that appeals to me. I would never switch to Verizon since I'm far too happy with Cingular. I only need two more people to switch to Cingular and I don't think I'd use any minutes at all, just tons of text messages. (I used close to 500 last month and I'm already too close to that this month. Thank goodness two of my txters are going out of town.) But being able to say, "Hey I've got unmelted chocolate in my pocket," really sounds like something I'd like to tell people. Everyone hates the M&Ms (which I haven't been able to eat for years because they are manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts and on the same equipment...I don't know how I survive at Poly's house, but I have less allergies there than at my house *cough*the Cheat*cough*) after they have melted in the bag and then you have all that dye on your hands and you have to eat them fast. That makes them unenjoyable. Unmelted "chocolate" cell phone. Yummy. Today, Contessa and Mehsha watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Of course, I joined in while I should have been doing French. More delicious chocolate. Augustus Gloop. That would be me if I was a German boy. Eating all of that chocolate and mistaking a golden ticket for nuget, but I'm allergic to nuget too. Oh well.

Feeling better and the French Manwich

I had not realized that it's been since July 13th that I actually updated, so... hey all! My name is Affable Olive. It's gotten to where I'm usually just Affie and... it's been a while. Hope you're still there.

I knew I was completely recovered today. It wasn't the doctor's visit where they tested me to make sure nothing else was wrong. No. It was the visit to Marshalls/TJ Maxx (I can't remember which one we have out here) where I found some totally awesome deals. When I feel sick, I can't shop. It's depressing, I know. Anyway, I got this cute light-weight jacket originally from Urban Outfitters (my almost favorite store), and it still had the original tags on it. Not only had I seen it in the catalog for $78, I had proof still attached since the tag had not been removed. It said $78 as well. Guess what I paid. Just guess. (Remember in this guess that I am an extreme form of Jewishness when it comes to money, which is why I'm relating all this.) I paid $7. The shirt I thought would look cute with it was only $5. Aren't deals just loverly? There were some KangaROOS (in my opinion, the most colorfulest, cutest, and comfortablest shoes) that were only $19, but I didn't get them. Also, I saw some Pumas and laughed very hard at what must have looked to be nothing at all since I got some awkward looks from the returning UGA students. I didn't care for once. I like being all better.

[Just incase you didn't know, although my goal is to learn Chinese to help out the Chinese group in Atlanta; I'm still learning French for school though. That's not something I'm stopping since I enjoy it. The biggest feat is remembering it. After all, trilingual/multilingual sounds way awesomer than just bilingual.] Now for the French Manwich. I have no clue what they call a sloppy joe in French, especially since Manwich is actually a brand. I suppose I could look it up...wait, I will. "Sloppy Joe" comes out joe trop liquide, but I would assume that's more like saying my friend joe is a messy eater. It's not really a BBQ sandwich so I'm not going to look that up, but onward to my point. My textbook is teaching me conversational French, so I'm not learning grammatical stuff or particulars. I'm learning how to tell people formal and informal ways I like things, don't like things, things I can do with other people, suggest things to do with other people, turn people down for invites (not put downs, which I would enjoy and employ), and of course, words for school subjects and supplies beside the basics like numbers and telling time. Not too much about verbs, etc., which is the stuff I would rather be learning instead of being able to order a glass of orange juice in Quebec in French. At least I won't go hungry (or thirsty) if I ever get somewhere that no one knows English, but everyone knows French. Today was food in my French lesson and it was telling me that a toasted ham and cheese was an un croque-monsieur. That's just about the manliest noun in the French language. Not only does it have a masculine article out front, it is trailed by monsieur, which everyone knows is Mister in French. I was quite intrigued by this. My book is kinda old (for a textbook), so I looked this up. Translated, this means a crunch-Mister, or a crusty-sun burned man. That's not appetizing at all. So I went and did a little translating and of course, you get something different depending on the place you use, but I was fond of this translation: sandwich grillé à jambon et à fromage. Very long, but it has sandwich, cheese, ham, and grilled in it and I feel it's a better choice than the crusty-sun burned man option. If I ever make it to somewhere that French is spoken, and I have this feeling to order a toasted ham and cheese, I'm ordering it the female way because I don't want a man sandwich.

Wow, that sounds like something Poly would have blogged about...Also, Affie's Book/Music Wednesday have both been postponed until the last Wednesday of this month...like you were wondering where it was and didn't know how life would go on without them.