15 May, 2012

The Blog to End all Blogs - It's In There, I Know it Is!

CAUTION: This blog has no point, and will likely be a rambling one! (You've been warned.)

My blogging has slowed down since my recent relocation to my parents' house in Indiana. I really miss posting 5 or 6 days a week. Obviously, “Red” is not my real name. Recent followers may not have cottoned on to the fact that nobody in my RL (real life) knows that I even have a blog. It is hard to post frequently when I'm living with two relatives who don't know why I might need to be online so much!

I thought about just outting myself to my parents, but you know:

After it's out there, you can Never Take It Back!

So I won't.

I'll keep trying to discreetly write my posts on paper on my own time, send photos to my email to download to my laptop, and combine them in bits and pieces, in between the job search and what my father calls “The Devil's Playground” : facebook.
Facebook is EVIL!!! (so sayeth my father.)
Oh my! A wasp just totally landed on my face and bounced off! ...I'm out on the deck editing this post.
 
I've been thinking about what fun stuff to write, but it's all so new, and random, and humdrum right now, there's not a lot to say! I'm really bummed about that.


Brett recently posted his 100th blog with a list of 100 things about him that are not elsewhere in his blog. (I dare anyone to go through his archives and double check.) I'm coming up on my 100th, and started a list like that, but really don't think I'll do it. It's hard for me to think there could be 100 things that my 18 followers and half-dozen other regular commenters actually want to know!

Blogs I have in me waiting to come out, or partially written:

The story of the china.
Getting lost in the woods.
Something about Red&Brett. (There's stuff to say, but I don't think I know how to say it.)
My definitive work on Skin Cancer. (I'm gonna get it. Just sayin')
My Dad is trying to kill me.
The Avengers or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - or both.
Something about where I used to work, now that I'm no longer there.
The micro-brewery I found out about and now have to actually find and tour. ...after I tour it, of course.
Complete my IOU and recommend 4 more blogs.

...Oh. There's SO MUCH in my head. But all this fresh air. And gardening. And parental presence. ...and peace and quiet. Usually what's in my head bursts out - but there's no need right now, because there's nothing to burst through!

In short, dudes, I'm sorry I'm not on the blogosphere very much. I pop into your blogs as I can, but don't always leave comments if I'm on a computer that's not my own, because that means logging in, and that means leaving the address of my blog for one of the 'rents to see.

I feel so deceptive.

I can't wait to have my own place.

11 May, 2012

It's Like a Fairytale! - but with murderous rocks


This is a story about Queen Holly the Magnificent and her sidekick King. King is a backhoe that Queen Holly and her husband purchased to assist them with all the renovations they are making to their vast estate in Virginia.

Queen Holly is my personal hero, who rebuilt a chicken coop, has been waging devastating war on horrible invasive kitchen pests (raccoons or bears, I'm guessing), protects her peach orchard from wildlife (probably with a machete or something, because that's how she rolls), is custom-building - with A CHAINSAW and a lot of force - a fence around the property - or a significant portion thereof - and has been utilizing King to help move giant rocks from one end of her kingdom to the other, to create a retaining wall.

She IS the Queen. All Hail!

While doing all this, she is relaying the ongoing saga via her blog "A Holly with Follies", with a lot of humor, some creative cursing, and overall, serious, awesomeness.

Now that I reside in a rural neighborhood in hilly country, I have a greater understanding of the kind of things she's talking about. Although I've not yet had need to utilize the chainsaw, we have a retaining wall out back that made me chuckle inside. It's lovely, with tiny purple flowers that grow between the rocks. Here it is...

Sweet, yes? Why did I chuckle? Here's Holly's retaining wall...

Dude...A-Mazing!!!
 Yeah, ours is kind of baby-sized by comparison.

Holly recently wrote about her retaining wall trying to murder her. Last week our small (but aggressive) retaining wall tried to murder me! I was out mowing the back yard ("Just the sloping bits"...of 3 acres of hillside). I got to use the electric push-mower, dragging the cord back and forth around the yard. ...and yes, up and around to the top of the retaining wall.


See those lovely, decorative, curved bricks at the base? Yeah. They're not mortared in place. (Is "mortared" a word?) The cord got tangled around one of them and I almost pulled the whole brick base loose.

...so wait...I guess that means that *I* almost murdered the retaining wall. THAT'S the difference between our little wall and Queen Holly's behemoth.

And then, after all my caution, I mowed over the extension cord and MASSACRED it! I am "Red, The Desctructor"! MWAHahahaha! The longer I stay here, the more uniquely country things I experience. Hopefully I'll get good enough to be less destructive in future.

Today's Something to Celebrate:
I just totally gave you another blog recommendation, bringing my IOU down to 4! (click the links to see why I owe recommendations, if you're new.)

09 May, 2012

Coming to You From Somewhere Between Where I Was and Where I Will Be...

I never thought I was a country girl. I don't listen to country music. I don't drive a pick-up. I don't own cowboy boots. I have no desire to do any of that. (well, maybe the boots... depending on where I end up.)

Hmm...maybe not!

For those of you who are new here, I recently relocated to the Midwest from the East Coast. I'm at my parents' house, and I know their world, but for the moment I'm in the thick of it.

This morning a neighbor arrived looking for someone to spot him while he cut limbs from trees that were dragging on his garage roof. That would be me. Magnum (my dad's amazing dog who taught me that I can love dogs) accompanied me. Two other neighborhood dogs showed up. I know their names. Does this happen anywhere but the country? Then I walked Magnum through the woods and around the pond before going home and getting going on my job search.

I've been here a week. My recent, long-awaited, meeting with Brett (click the link if you missed it) and a spontaneous follow-up day together on Cinco de Mayo. (Joy!) has overshadowed the fact that I am jobless for the moment.

I did connect last week with the few contacts I had out here about possible job opportunities, only to find that at this time there is nothing available, but I did get information on when these places would be hiring again...not soon enough.

Yeah, my resume made
this much sense.

I started working on updating my resume, only to find that the only copy I had with me was on PDF, so I had to print it out and re-do the whole thing. Not a bad idea, since it needed reformatting and ...minimizing (for lack of a better word).


This week, I am full-bore hunting down new leads and perfecting a beautiful, concise yet thorough resume. Let me try to take you through my day today:

I had decided that, before perfecting the resume, it would be a good idea to see exactly what kind of jobs I was going to be shooting for out here. The first, easiest thing was to check out the State jobs site. Yeah. State of Indiana a) has nothing available in my field, and b) pays less than the State of Delaware. I really don't want to have two jobs again!

There is a city in the region that has been sticking in my head as the area for me to be - to be near enough for a quick visit to my parents without being up their nose all the time. So my next, easiest thing, was to check out that city's website and see what they might have. Yeah. Nothing.

Have you ever been spelunking? Or not even spelunking, but just in a cave...like as a tourist or something. They seem to be massive tunnels that you follow deeper and deeper, with occasional openings into big open areas.

Cathedral Caverns. It's big, dudes!
Well, suddenly I was struck by a sense that I was in a big cave, but I couldn't find the opening, because it was like being in the middle of the cavern...far from any wall that could lead me to the way out. It was kind of a dark sensation for the middle of the day. See, this is weird for me. I've never been completely out of work. (Well okay, for about a week and a half once. Hey...huh...I've just reached that. Too bad I didn't think of that this morning when I was in the cave!)
I googled "Yoda and Luke Skywalker".
Google, this is a FAIL! BIG-TIME!

Did I mention that I had on Empire Strikes Back as background while online? Yeah. I'm in the country, and it was a beautiful day and the birds were singing in so many languages it was actually distracting. I know ESB so well that it can fade into the background. So I let it.

And then it got to that scene where Luke is training with Yoda and he can't do what's requested so being the pouty snot he is he says "You want the impossible!" to Yoda, who says right back, "Always with you it cannot be done."

Well, that Star Wars dose of reality really helped. "Try not! Do, or do not: there is no try!" Amen, Yoda. Amen. In that same vein I decided that all the "no"s I was coming across were like a Jedi mind trick: "These aren't the jobs you're looking for." I know. I'm such a nerd. But it helped!

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing what I hope is the final version of my resume. GEEZ! Sometimes I think I'm a perfectionist. Hopefully it's perfect for whatever job I find.

07 May, 2012

"Mirror, Mirror" on the Wall, Who's the Biggest Movie Whore of All?

I entertained the Movie Whore by going to "Mirror, Mirror" one afternoon - feels like an age ago - when I was in Baltimore for a "hello" to Misty and a good-bye to my rollercoaster buddy. The Movie Whore had some thoughts about the movie, obviously, because she's totally opinionated. They were really random thoughts, so...well, bear with me.


At first, the Movie Whore thought we had made a terrible mistake!

M.W.: Uh-oh - Julia Roberts is trying an English accent? What is that? wait...dropped R's and soft vowels do not equate to an accent. Dude, Red does a MUCH more realistic English accent. Or...Hm, is that really what she's going for? Oh, this could be torture. What did I waste money on?

...okay. That seemed to be her narration voice. She was more herself as the Evil Queen. Which is a problem. Julia Roberts isn't "evil"! She doesn't do "evil" at all believably. She can do damaged. She can do tormented. She does sympathetic well. SOOO not evil. Hmm...


M.W.: That dude from Social Network is... the Prince? Hm. Interesting. Looks good. Plays it well.

...It's a shame that the guy who played the other twin in Social Network had this face digitally imprinted over his own. He's never gonna be recognized. ...I wonder what he's up to.

Then the movie got cute. There's some fun dialog, some irony. Like when the queen is all flustered about having a half-naked man in front of the throne, and he tells his sidekick "Women always get crazy when there's a Prince in the room." Ri-i-i-ight. The de-clothed-ness has nothing to do with it!

M.W.: Oh-oh-oh! GROSS! EWWWW! ...hilarious. The Queen's "Treatment" is as good as the pie from The Help. That's all I'm saying. MWAHahaha!
...Oooh! Love the Queen's  bathrobe!

Okay. The dwarves start training Snow to be a dwarf. That is some fun stuff. The dwarves kick butt. Best part of the movie, these seven!

Being a dwarf isn't just about size!
~~~
M.W. Now that's cute. The Queen:"Get this man a shirt so I can concentrate." Nice.

You can tell he's trying to kill her, right?

The Movie Whore's favorite quick-line comeback in a movie. Ever. (or at least, that she can think of at the moment):
Snow is pining for the Prince, and some of the dwarves are confused.
"He tried to kill her today!"
"What do you think love is?"
True. So true.


(As Jenny Lawson says in her book: Maybe this is what real love is: Trying to make it less difficult for someone to kill you.)

I love those dwarves.
The dwarves, whose names are not at all like Disney's dwarves.

...and by the way, anyone trying to crash a wedding? Watch "Mirror, Mirror". Those guys know how to crash a wedding!

And the close of the movie? Don't get up too soon. There's some very cool Bollywood-style end credit music and a dance party. Sweet.

Like I said, kind of random thoughts. All in all, I might actually add this to my collection. It's pretty fun, even though Julia Roberts was mis-cast.

03 May, 2012

Red Arrived in the “Brett Zone” and WAS NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN...

...seriously people, this is the Movie Whore and Red's Inner Bibliophile (I.B., here. I'm going to try to sit back and just edit). Red drove off to meet her internet fiance Brett today, and hasn't been in her right mind since. We can only assume she's in some “other” mind (or “frame of”). But we knew you'd like to know what happened, so we'll do the best we can.

(okay, I.B. again. The Movie Whore does a fine job telling this story, but she's not a reader. I know readers, and some of you out there skip to the end. Shame on you. But just so that you WON'T do that, I am over-riding the Movie Whore's instincts and editing the order of this story, by bringing the end to the top. Enjoy.)
~~~
Seriously, that was an awesome good-bye. I bet Red can't wait to see him again, just to say good-bye again! ...well, maybe not just that. And I guess more to the point she probably wishes she'd stayed there just a little bit longer.

Are these squirrels, I.B.?
No, Whore, those are Prairie Dogs.
Whatever. Rodents.

But DUDE! It sure took them long enough to get there! They should have started their day that way.

I.B.: No-no. It was just right. They had to get used to each other's presence first. And it didn't matter that they started slow. These two can't keep anything from each other. Didn't you hear them?

Yeah, yeah. They both wanted to start out by greeting the other with a kiss. Both FAILED! Sad, so sad. It would have made a better opening scene if they had. ...I should have written this script. Romance is wasted on the unromantic.

I.B.: Maybe a better scene, but think it through. If they started the way they ended, would they have had the rest of their random adventure?

Sure! You know Red loves her “random”.

I.B.: Yeah, but after 3 months of talk? It's better that they ended today this way. It's a better story. PLUS you know there will be a sequel.

~~~

(I.B. the editor back again: There, now you know it ended well. And some goobers who still skipped to the bottom will have learned their lesson! Now I'll let the Movie Whore tell it.)

First off, if this were a movie, the costumes would get about a B-. Red stuck to her guns (thankfully) and dressed as she naturally would in shorts and a tank for such a hot day. She did NOT follow Aphrodite's unsolicited advice to wear a dress. But seriously, Red? Sandals? Fail. Big time fail. Should have gone with flip-flops.

I.B.: Brett looked good, what's your complaint there, Movie Whore?

Brett did look good in his black jeans and light blue shirt that matched his eyes perfectly. (Yeah, we're onto you, Brett; that was SO not a coincidence!) But jeans? In 85-degree weather? Fail.

They both looked good, natural, like themselves, but since they both got a FAIL, that brings them both down to a B-.

I.B.: Okay, I'll go along with that logic. Tell them about the State Park Fiasco!

Yeah. They had this one all figured out until the day before when they decided to meet at a different State Park. See, Red liked the idea of meeting at a park because it's different, it's active, you get to really see what the other person is like. ...It's a good idea, really. Only because of the last minute change, Red and Brett found themselves at a state park whose nature center was not open – not such a catastrophe since it turned out to be sunny for the first time since Red got here! - but Red gets these ideas in her head, and so this "not being able to meet at the nature center" kind of threw her off.

Anyway, they started off on one of the trails, just chatting like on one of their phone calls. Boring stuff. Then they get to the puddles in the path and Red remembered that it had been raining for 3 days! Seriously, what a goober she is. After a while of both of these two nuts trying to find the dry ground on either side of the many puddles, and of Red finding guck squishing into her sandals, she finally took them off and carried them. This is what I'm saying: FLIP-FLOPS!

I.B. Hey at least there can be no pretense! She wanted to be her real, natural self and not the dress-wearing perfect Miss that Aphrodite was suggesting... and I think squishing through the mud and splattering it from your shoes onto your clothes qualifies as “real” and “natural”!

Whatever. When they got back to the parking lot, they decided to find something else to do that would be less hot and muddy. Thanks to Brett's road atlas, they trekked off down the road to a town of historical significance that was in the direction of Brett's hometown.

I.B.: Oh that's good. I know Red was concerned about the fact that he had to drive the furthest.

Yeah, but did you hear later when he said he didn't mind driving so far, because he knew she had just driven across the country? Geez. Is it possible for two people to be TOO considerate of each other?

I.B.: I don't know. But it sure seemed like the two of them together have difficulty making any clear decisions. Go on with the story, you're doing fine.

Well, kudos to the historian who was giving the tour of these little buildings from a time before Indiana was even a state. He really knew his stuff and was very thorough. Red is a very good audience, and she later blamed herself for how long he took. But after all, this is her new home state, and she loves this kind of stuff anyway.

The funny thing was that later, when Red blamed herself, Brett agreed that the historian seemed to get excited every time she asked questions.

I.B.: Do most people not ask questions when they're touring an historical site?

I dunno. I've only ever been in Red's head. I don't think she's a good example of “normal”. ...and what's with the pretentious "an historical", I.B? Loosen up!

I.B.: Whatever. They both got a personalized bookmark out of the tour, and I LOVE it! I'll put it in the book I'm reading right now! But moving on, what did you think of the dinner scene? (if that's what we're calling it, because it was quite early for true “dinner”.)

That was a surprise! I know neither one had eaten before they met, so by 4:30 in the afternoon of course they were hungry, but Red was intentionally avoiding that scenario by doing the park thing because if you do a meal there's the whole “decision-making” thing, the whole “here's what I don't eat” thing, the possibility of dripping/splattering all over yourself, the possibility that he might chew with his mouth open and then it's all over(because that's disgusting), and of course the whole “Bistromathics” thing. ...although she needn't have worried: Brett took care of the Bistromathics issue by just paying for everything, like a gentleman.

I.B.: Should we explain Bistromathics?

Nah, Red already did. I'll just link to that post
(For those of you who aren't going to click the link,
Bistromathics is a theory from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.)

I.B.: You may be on to something with your "is it possible to be TOO considerate?" Although they decided on Fazoli's pretty quickly, for all Red's concerns about eating on a first "date".

I think Red was only pretending to be indecisive about where to eat. She knew full well she'd passed a Fazoli's, and ever since Brett's daughter made a comment about that chain on her FB page, Red's been looking forward to that aspect of Indiana.

I.B.: See what I mean? Too considerate. She could just as easily have said, “I saw a Fazoli's, and I've been anxious to eat there, because we don't have them in Delaware.” Brett's a very easy-going guy. He wouldn't have minded ...and then someone would have made a quick decision!

Well, regardless of how they got there, the dining scene was my least favorite part of today: No action. Just two people talking and eating. And then good-bye.

I.B.: Good-bye was good!

Good-bye was very good! I'd watch a replay of that. Maybe that's where Red is...watching the replay. Haha!

(I.B. the editor: For those of you who jumped to the end first, regardless of the warning. HAHA! Joke's on you! The ending is at the beginning!)

Well, hopefully Red will return to her right mind soon enough to field the comments. I don't know if we're equipped to answer any questions!

01 May, 2012

Stupid Blogger!

(So my latest post is HERE, because for some reason Blogger decided to post it on the last day I tried to post it. Sorry for the confusion. Believe me I'm as confused as you are.)

Change is In the Air

*sigh*

Well, I'm online again!

Unfortunately, I had another post in draft form that needed some adjusting, but I can't access it because I'm on my Mom's computer (mine is still in the trunk of my car and it's pouring outside. Yeah. Not gonna dodge raindrops for it.) and her computer for some reason doesn't really like Blogger. Since she doesn't know I have a blog, I can't very well ask her to upgrade/download something for the sake of my access to my blog!

Anyway, here I am in Indiana. To answer what I assume are your questions:

1. No, it doesn't feel like home. I've visited my parents too often for it to suddenly be "home". I found myself leaving most everything in their giant "shed" because of course I won't need all that many outfits during the summer, and I'll be moving to my own place soon enough. Even though I have NO IDEA when that will be, or where that will be.

2. I had a delightful stop early in my drive, meeting up with Misty of Misty's Laws (sorry, I can't link on this computer) and we chatted at Arby's and she presented me with a very Baltimore-centric gift of Old Bay seasoning (AWESOME) and Berger's cookies (holy sugar-high). Misty is the sweetest person, very easy to make friends with, and I'm very sad to be leaving her region just after beginning our RL friendship. Fortunately we still have our online friendship!

3. I arrived at 1 a.m. this morning (last night). But it was an easy drive. I LOVE the Interstate Highway system! The single greatest thing about the USA. LOVE it. My car loves it, too.

4. We spent today unloading the truck, delivering my piano to some friends of my parents who will make an offer after getting it tuned and assessed.

5. Tomorrow I'll move the big stuff from my car to the shed, and do some unpacking. Maybe start the job search, too. I don't really know where to begin with that - kind of terrifying.

My mom took the Movie Whore (unbeknownst to her) and myself to see "The Raven" on Saturday after the truck was all loaded. The Movie Whore is looking forward to monopolizing this blog for a few days, because she still hasn't had her say about Mirror Mirror. We both would really like to be able to take the time to download some pictures for both posts, though.

What am I forgetting? I'm really tired. Friday night I got home around midnight from the symphony with Aphrodite; Saturday I got to bed around 12:30 after cleaning the cottage, and last night...obviously.

I'll try to get back to my regular postings, but can't promise anything!