Confusion and the 3rd degree

Today was confusion day. Even the Cheat has been out of it. Right now, I was supposed to be at my Oliveparents'. Well, plans changed and I'm still at home. Tomorrow, I have to be at my Oliveparents because I have a concert that I'm going to. Not quite sure how I'm getting there. I'm feeling odd about this trip. It's been about two months since I've made a trip to Atlanta. Now, it's not that I'm not looking forward to going. Far from it. I've got an awesome day lined up for tomorrow. A fresh full helping of Tori and the Posse in the morning, a drive to Stone Mountain, and I'll top off the day by blowing out my ear drums by Arcade Fire. What could be more exciting? Then Friday, my craving for Thai rice will be fulfilled! Followed by some shopping (I need new black heels and flats) still with Eas, and ended with some of the best Turkish food ever to grace A'retta. I can't wait. Not sure how I'm getting home after my soiree with my ATL gang, but that doesn't matter to me right now. I just know there's no way that I'm skipping out on any of it. Meeting and grocery shopping Wednesday. Saturday/Thursday, I'll fit in a book study. Meeting Sunday. Home next Monday. I'll be with my Oliveparents'. Thing is, I know I haven't been in a while, but I'm having some mixed feelings about this visit. When I was packing last night, I just wasn't into it, and that's not like me. Part of it is, I don't want to leave Andy, which is pretty stupid because 1.) I'm not breaking up with him, 2.) it's natural to miss him, and 3.)we've been apart for a week before. Something about this trip though seems like I'm betraying him. Lately, it's felt like I am living two lives in two different places. There's the one out here and the one there. Somehow, I have to merge them without feeling...poser? wannabe? fake? High school drama. *sigh* I asked for it.

This story has high popularity rankings right now in the real world, so here's exposing it to the blog world. Last Sunday I went to my lost aunt's house and watched Buffy and Howdy Doody while she and her mom worked in the front yard and her dad, Andy, and Biscuit worked in the backyard putting together a playset for the kids. The orgininal plans has been rescheduled from a previous Sunday, so I was unsure if my invitation still stood since I played a less important role in the outworking of the plans. After the meeting, I found out that i was still invited and I asked mom pronto. She asked if the boys were still going to be there. It was right before that time of the month for me, so my temper was shorter than usual. I said, "I don't know," just as my "whatever" answer. Mom says, "You know they're still going over there. You just lied to me." So I was still granted permission to go, but when I got home, my punishment was issued. My keys were going to be taken away from me for a week. I served my time, since I knew it wasn't for that one time. (I with held information from teh previous month and slid by with a talking to and they were a lot worse than just a dsgruntled whatever answer.) It wasn't too bad, and I think it put a cramp more in mom's life than mine because Mehsha and I did things. Still, I served my time and received my keys today. Jeepie and I went to get the oil changed. Better than nothing. I do love driving.

Friday, I went to go see a movie. I was half watching the previews, but still couldn't help but notice how many sequels and "thirds" are coming out this summer. Some, I can't wait to see. Others, I'll go see for necessity's sake. Then there are the ones and you can't imagine who even thought to resurrect the original concept- much less a third time!
I do want to see:

• Spiderman 3- I liked the first two and I'm sure I won't be disappointed in this one, except it looks gawd-awful long.
• The Bourne Ultimatum- Oh how long I've waited! All the elements that an action movie needs, plus Matt Damon. I can't wait to see how they top the chase scene from Supremacy.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End- Finally the second one will make sense! This one you can't resist.

Not too keen on, but will probably see anyway:

• Shrek the Third- Just because of sequel law, and the fact that I'll probably have to take the kids I babysit
• Ocean's Thirteen- didn't really love the "Twelfth" one, but Andy wants to, so I'll probably see it with his family

WHY????????????:

• Rush Hour 3- How old is Jackie Chan? Like 60, right? Come on. You can watch the first two on tbs all the time, why waste your money to see the same movie just in a different setting?
• Resident Evil 3- OK, I didn't see the first two (obviously), so understandably, I wouldn't want to see a third.

Plain ol' sequels:

• Evan Almighty- Now, Steve Carell is awesome. This will probably be very funny. I'll most likely see this one.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer- I'm not into comic book movies. Just Spidey. Didn't see the first one, so same theory goes for this one as resident evil.

All I have to say is I'm going to see a lot more than five movies this year.

Librarything

A week or so ago, I was using the "next blog" option, which I have since quit doing because it's a scary world out there. Anyway, so on this one blog, there was a widget on the sidebar linked to a website called Librarything. It's a website where you can create an online catalog of your books. You can add them by using any feature of the book. After starting out by using titles and authors, I quickly realized how easy it was to use the ISBN, and I found out what the heck that was. For me, it's not such a big deal. I only have 117 books (evidently), but others have well over 10,000. You can add up to 200 books for free, and you can join for your lifetime for $25 or yearly for $10. I just thought it was a neat way to show what I own, my favorite authors, favorite childhood books, etc. There's a tags option too. I just love tags. Plus, it has a "recommends" page, which is always a great way to facilitate growth for a collection. It's too bad they don't have one for music. I'd be all over that, but I have a lot more CDs than I have books. So check out my "new feature" on the sidebar.

Where is everybody?

I have a feeling Poly is the only one keeping up with my blog anymore. I keep desprately trying to post on H'n'B's, but with my computer being... mentally challenged, there's not much I can do to fix it. It just seems to be awful lonely...

Yeah, about that weather...

Poly posted a few weeks ago about our crazy Georgia weather. Like my dad always says, if you don't like the weather in Georgia, just wait five mintues.

Last Sunday, we had all that wind. Well, this is what happened in my backyard:

The line rider

I think I'm begining to have waaay too much fun with the "edit" feature as far as my blog is concerned. It's just too neat to resist for someone like me that always likes to put their own touch on things. Oh and I'm trying to break my current record for number of posts in a month. Current

I just realized that it's Friday the 13th. Oh well.

Maybe this will be the last thing that I share with you all today...maybe. Or I could further abuse the fact that I finally was able to login. Mehsha showed us this site a few days ago. It's www.official-linerider.com. I've only had time to play with it a little bit, but it's defentitely another one of those time wasters but impossible to tear yourself away from sites, a la the jacksonpollock site that Poly had on his "just because" link a few months ago. Just check out this video and then go have some fun yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcu8ZdJ2dQo

Pictures from their special two-week appearance!

I don't know how many of you know that Mehsha had two chicks for two weeks. They lived in her bath tub. Though I was allergic as all get out to them, they were some of the cutest little buggers you've ever seen! And just think, they're going to grow up and be ugly chickens. And yes, we were all well aware of the health hazards and the neighborhood by-laws. It was so fun having the little chirpers around though. It's like when you have a cat and she has a litter of kittens. You just have to do it once. The black one she named after Poly and the grey-ish white one she named after I dunno. Yeah... ask her about that.

Home is where the heart is

It finally let me log in! This old piece of junk. I disabled cookies to get to the log in box and then it's all upset that I disabled the cookies! Make up your mind you old hag of a compy!

To really send shivers up y'all's spines, I'm listening to Hilary Duff's latest album, "Dignity" right now.

So, since I addressed the fact that I am dating Andy now, I can post about this here. The other day, we were chatting about my relationship with someone that lives in Atlanta. We've discussed this before that anything that makes him uncomfortable, he needs to let me know. Once of the first things that we discussed was my desire to move back to Atlanta. Everyone that reads this knows I love the city and even just two or three months ago, I would've given anything to move back. That was a point of discussion because he wants to live out here, or at least have a house here, for the rest of his life. In December, that would've been the biggest issue and I probably wouldn't have dated him because of that. Thing is though, I know I'm not leaving. I'm dedicated to this congregation as much as he is and I was not planning on leaving the congregation for the first three to five years anyway. Andy just wants to live here for the rest of his life, not be tied here, which was a big relief to me. He wants to travel and be a part of the international construction work more than anything else. Georgia is always home. And when my family moved out here, I decided that I could deal with being here because as long as I'm with my family and in Georgia, I'm happy. The congregation did a lot as far as changing my attitude toward moving back. There's no way I could see leaving most of these brothers and sisters. So my roots are tied here now, but there's no denying that I need some of that fast paced city mentality to survive, and that's how my relationship with my friends in Atlanta comes into play here. He realizes that they are my ties to something that I still need a little bit of to function, and he's willing to make concessions to make sure that I'm happy, since that's all he desires. It was great to hear that he doesn't want me to break off any friendships I have because he knows that those are my connections to the city and if he makes me cut all ties, he will have a hard time trying to deal with me and make me happy.

The city will always be in me. Andy called me his "half-n-half" girl today, and I truly believe that's what I've become. I love both the city and my semi-country life out here and I don't know what I'd do without either of them because I think having both in my repertoire of experiences makes me a more well rounded person.

Maybe there is hope

Although my taste in country music has been revived from my first grade year, and this has upset at least two of my readers, I'd like for both of them to know that I haven't forgotten my roots. Jules, yours and Smellie's hard work in pointing me in the right direction musically has not been in vain! I still remember the look on your face when you saw "White Blood Cells" in my music collection and all you could say was, "We raised her right." No I haven't forgotten all the fun I had at Yo La Tengo and how totally awesome alternative rock is. My favorite band is still the White Stripes. (My favorite solo artist is Tori Amos, but that upsets Jules too.) And I was VERY excited to find that my "brother-sister" duo *cough*liars*cough* have not disbanded all efforts to bring me my favorite head-banging music and produce a new album! So on June 19th, I'll be in line at BestBuy (or Wuxtry's) raring and ready to get myself a copy of "Icky Thump," and wear it out completely the first week I have it. Right now, all I can wait for is ADP (you just aren't cool if you don't get the abbreviation), but you better believe me, after that I'll be camping out all over again. Yep, definitely can't wait for this one either. And here's the cover art featuring my two favorite pasty freaks:



Also leave comments on the new layout. I'd love to have y'alls imput on what you might like to see. (The feed from everythingtori.com stays, so don't even mention that.)

Happenings of a Weekend- aka "The Young and the Restless"

I had not realized that it's been a month since I posted here. Thing is, I gave myself those three weeks off from blogging that Poly and H'n'B were trekking across Asia, and although there's been plenty of drama going on here, there hasn't been much that been worth posting about- or that I've had the time to post about because it's taking all my extra time to deal with it. In my efforts to get back into the swing of things, I'm just going to post about my weekend.

For starters, I'll take this moment to inform, confirm, and restate something: I'm dating Andy Clasky (aka- String-bean Andy). Bubbles (who has since proved that there are quite a few lights turned off upstairs, if you get my drift) broke up with him mid-December. I started liking him in late November, and he started liking me before he was actually free to. Our relationship has been going very well, to the point where we have been seriously talking about what we'd like to do with our future. He's sweeter than gummy bears and all he wants to do is take care of me for the rest of my life and let me pioneer. We're both very dedicated to going into the International Building Work after the O.C. congregation is solid, which he will be having more of a share in since he was appointed as a ministerial servant last month. Plus, it sounds like we're getting very close to it coming to fruition and he wants to serve in what his family has been looking forward to for nineteen years and I would like to be one of the first pioneers. Everyone is getting pretty excited.

I feel like I'm getting sick. It's kinda like a chest cold, but considering that I've done my inhaler for the past four days, it could quickly turn into pneumonia for the third time since albuterol weakens the lungs. Yeah, I feel like crap, except my allergies have almost been non-existent this season. I'm taking the most wonderful prescription decongestant ever. And one of the side effects is lack of sleep due to more energy and that's just a perk in my book, especially since I can spend more time outside since the yellow dust doesn't kill me when I walk out the door. Everything is a gorgeous shade of green out here now, even though it's like 40 degrees outside. All thanks to recycling too... of chicken crap. Omigod did it ever smell HORRIBLE out here for about a week solid. You would have thought everyone's septic tanks had exploded. Since the Clasky family rents 10 of their 17 acres to the Dickens to farm, there was chicken crap about 50 yards from there house, and not just theirs but you could probably run into a field covered with crap if you traveled a mile in any direction from any point in the county for a week. It was SO GROSS NASTY. In the interim, the poo came into play in a revenge plot hatched by Andy and for a week extra, Biscuit's truck smelled just as bad. Ewww... thank goodness it's just one week outta the year.

So yeah, my weekend, which was pretty packed for a change. Friday, I spent about five hours in service with my dad, our Lithuwanian P.U., and Andy. Though I was the only chick in the group all day, it was still a good day in my book. I was able to introduce my dad to three of my calls and have some good conversations with them. From service, I kidnapped my dad and took him to the cingular store because it was my favorite day that comes every two years: contract renewal! After talking to David (the guy I always talk to there because he thinks I'm cute and gives me a discount), he gave me his opinion of which of the two phones I had it narrowed down to and told me which one he thought would best fit my needs so I got... this one. It's so cool. I can have as many different ring tones for as many different people as I want. It has a great camera and it does video as well. It keeps a good charge and drops less calls and I get better reception in the house. As an added bonus, sony ericsson has vastly improved their txtmsg center, which is very important to me since I now have unlimited cingular to cingular txting and about 200 for you other people that just don't get it. Plus, Andy and Biscuit have the same phone so we can send videos to each other because I'm positive that they want to watch me walk through Barnes and Noble and give my comments on all of the bargain shelf books and I'm just dying to see them drive their 4-wheelers though cow turds again. Excited with my new purchase that cost me all of $10 (after I get the rebate), dad and I rushed home, changed and left for Aunt Bee's. Her husband is the coolest pagan ever, and he makes the best BBQ in the whole O.C. That's what he cooked for us, Dimwitt & Eliza, and the new family that's moving up from Miami, who I shall call the Perez family. They have a daughter who is 18 and will have no trouble adjusting here to life here. She taught everyone there that night how to "ernk" people. There's no sense in explaining because Mehsha will get you all eventually. Got home, caught up with Poly, and passed out around eh... 1 A.M .me thinks.

Saturday I got my butt outta bed for service. Worked with a brother who I thought had developed some sort of issue with me, but found out that he's just been working (he's a school bus driver) and doing this fireman's training from 5 AM-5 PM each day and he's still managing to pioneer somehow. So he's not mad at me, just very tired. It was an OK morning. After service, mom and Mehsha left for ATL, dad and Jiminy Cricket left to the Stephenson Rd. KH for an RBC meeting, and I took my lost aunt to lunch at Depalma's downtown. That's some of the best Italian food in the coolest atmosphere in all of Athens. We talked relationships, did a little bit of gossiping, talked about plans to attend Jammie's wedding in West Palm (her home town), and chatted about Russian history. There aren't too many people that have a passion for Russian history like I do, and it was totally funny to find out that she is as into it as I am. She told her cousin that we will stay with in West Palm if I travel with her that she will be bringing her au pair, which cracks me up. She said it makes her sound rich, even though I only work for her one night a week watching her (my) kids. I love her kids, she's like a lost family member, and I know she's having a tough time right now, so I treated her to lunch. Following the delicious Italian food, I did the grueling drive to Stone Mountain where my Oliveparents live. It was high time for a family dinner and I have a wonderful time. Food is always good and we broke open the bottle of Dom Peringnon. It was good stuff. I was only allowed sips of that. After my slice of the best chocolate cake on earth, it was time to drive home because it was all I could do to keep from falling asleep. The chocolate just makes me so drowsy. Passed out at arrival time.

Sunday. Dad gave an outgoing talk in Conyers at 3:30 PM, so us Olivegals went to the meeting at 10 AM here at home. Afterwards, I collected phones and went played which one is who's with the mothers of the children that the three identical phones belong to (i.e.- mom, Momma Hayes, and Deborah Clasky). I was feeling pretty stupid, or maybe just not lucid. From there mom, Mehsha, Andy, and I went to lunch at Chinese. It was quite entertaining when it came time to open up the fortune cookies with us adding "on the toilet" to the end or "in the bed." Mine was, "Tomorrow will be a productive day. Don't oversleep [in the bed/on the toilet]." It made sense either way, and I proved it wrong too. I knew I was smarter than that cookie could ever be. At 4:30, we all went bowling. All is Mehsha, Biscuit, Andy, and me. Biscuit did some good bowling, making it over 130 both times. We were kinds forced to invite two other kids in the congregation. It's not that we have a problem with them, but our buffer girl that knows them well is under house arrest for false charges (as far as many people are concerned, not just us kids), and these two kids just don't talk much but they know her really well. Thing is they were on their way back from their grandmother's when we started our first game. It only takes us two hours to bowl two games and we were done and leaving when they got there. That was awkward... we all felt so sorry for them, but none of us had enough money to bowl another game and we all had plans back at the Clasky house that their stepfather didn't allow them to come to. The four of us do a lot of stuff minus adults and their mom wouldn't let them come without her husband and seeing as how he's 18, that either means he can't hold his own or she's overprotective. Anyway, that's none of my business, but so we all drove back to the Clasky residence and started playing baseball in the field. I took pictures, which are some of the funniest things you've ever seen. After some 4-wheeler rides, it got all complicated when our house arrest friend, Jordie-Porgie, showed up with her mom, little brother, and little sister. See, it was freezing by that time and we were all trying to go inside, they were keeping us out there, I was raring for some hot chocolate, and it just became a huge fiasco. Jordie and Biscuit like each other, but Jordie's parents are over protective. Though she's only 16 and he's 21 and they have full right to stop it and they should, they're taking it too far. They won't let her talk to any of us, just because we're friends with Biscuit. Her mom had to stay around while she and Deborah Clasky went over their talk because Biscuit was there. My mom had set an 8:30 curfew for Mehsha and I was trying to make hot chocolate for people and somehow the number kept growing till there must have been 20 cups on the counter and...ahhh! So after the hot chocolate was fixed I hugged everyone and ran from that place. Passed out after Andy and I finished studying the REV book together and here I am now about 24 hours later, being pushed out of the chair.

Can't wait to tell you all what I've been listening to lately. I'll give you a hint: it starts with a "c" and ends with "ountry"